The Senate said on Friday that the 9th National Assembly was able to facilitate the generation of additional N320bn revenue into the Federation Account in the last one year.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Ajibola Basiru, disclosed this in a statement made available to our correspondent in Abuja.
He said the federal lawmakers were able to achieve the feat through the legislative work they carried out on the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contract (Amendment) Act 2019 to repeal and replace Section 16 of the Act.
He said, “A statutory mandate to review the Act was never complied with for decades and the country lost valuable revenue. Thus, the amendment passed by this Senate achieved four major milestones.
“First, it revised upwards the regime of royalty payable on crude produced in deepwater. Secondly, it deleted Section 16 of the Act which provided for the trigger for a review of the Act.”
According to Basiru, the amendment introduced Section 16(A), which mandates the Minister of Petroleum to cause the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to order a review of Production Sharing Contracts every eight years.
He said, “It introduced Section 16(B), which provided for offences and penalties.
“The cumulative effect of the amendment is that the sum of N320bn has been unlocked, according to several reputable industry experts, and it goes without saying that the injection of such huge revenue into our economy will catalyse several positive outcomes.”
According to Basiru, the 9th Senate is committed to prompt consideration and passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill once it is received from the executive.
