In what is seen as revenue leakage, the House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee probing under-remittance to the Federation Account by companies operating in Nigeria has ordered Pillar Oil to refund $300,000 that it failed to remit since 2016 into the Federation Account.
Chairman of the Ad-hoc committee, Mr James Faleke, (APC, Lagos) gave the ruling during an investigative hearing on under-remittance of funds to the Federation Account, weekend.
Faleke hinged his ruling on the fact that since 2016, Pillar Oil has been exploring oil but failed to pay an outstanding balance of $300,000 for a $1million remittance from 2012.
He said “You can’t be exploring oil since 2016 while the 36 states of Nigeria can’t pay N30,000 minimum wage and you expect us to sit down and watch. We’ll not hesitate to ask the Federal Government to revoke your operational licence if you fail to pay the outstanding to the Federation Account.
“This committee is giving you till next Thursday to furnish its Secretariat with all payments made so far to the Federation Account for further legislative scrutiny.”
In response, Mr Ifeanyi Nwagboje, the company’s Director of Finance and a representative of Pillar Oil, pleaded for understanding as the company stopped operation for a period of time.
He said “We were able to pay $700,000 and we are making all efforts to pay the outstanding $300,000 as soon as possible.
“If not that we stopped production when there was crisis in the oil sector we would have completed the payment in due time.”
But the chairman, Faleke insisted “We can’t give you any reprieve now as you have been exploring since 2016 without payment, please come back on Thursday for all the documents we requested for.”
Recall that the ad-hoc committee probing under-remittance into Federation Account was inaugurated last February by the House of Representatives to check revenue leakages into Government coffers since 2010.
