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Monday 27 August 2012

Presidency denies N7.2 trillion missing oil revenue, says budget benchmark is $75 per barrel


Following recent reports of a missing N7.8 trillion from national annual oil revenue, the presidency has denied the allegation, declaring it as false and a calculated attempt to malign the Federal Government.
Addressing newsmen in Abuja, on Sunday, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr Doyin Okupe, said reports circulating through text messages and social media that a sum of N7.2 trillion is unaccounted for from the nation’s annual oil revenue is “untrue, very inciting and a deliberate twisting of facts.
“Those peddling this falsehood had noted that crude oil sell for $113 per barrel and that since Nigeria’s output is 2.5 million barrel per day, the nation is making N11.7 trillion per annum. The rumour proceeded to note that since annual budget is N4.5 trillion, a sum of N7.2 trillion is missing on annual basis. This is infantile and very far from the truth.
“The first clarification is that Nigeria’s total oil revenue does not belong to the Federal Government alone. Nigeria as a nation shares the revenue with the oil companies at a sharing formula of 60:40 per cent. The 60 per cent is then deposited into the federation revenue account, which is then shared further among the three levels of government.
“The Federal Government’s share is 52.6 per cent; states governments, 26.7 per cent and local governments, 20.5 per cent.
“It is also important to state that the nation has a benchmark price for crude sales for budget purposes. The benchmark for Nigeria crude sale is $75 and even if we sell for $113, the excess goes into the Excess Crude Account, from which the Sovereign Wealth Fund is financed, while the rest is shared again among the three levels of governments.
“So it is simply the height of falsehood to say N7.2 trillion or what is missing from the annual crude sales,” Dr Okupe said.

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