Officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) are to appear before Senate Committee on Public Accounts on Tuesday, over the alleged disappearance of $9.5 million interest which was accrued from Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT) investment.
According to the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Matthew Urhoghide, the principal sum deposited, tenor and rate of interest of the investment were veiled in secrecy.
The PPT is a tax applicable to upstream operations in the oil industry.
The tax is particularly related to rents, royalties, margins and profile sharing elements associated with the oil mining, prospecting and exploration leases.
The summon of the officials of the apex bank followed the consideration of the panel in a report by the Auditor-General, which audited the accounts of Federal Government’s agencies.
The development got the Committee angry and invited the CBN to explained the raised issues in the Auditor-General’s report.
The report had said: “During the examination of transfers to Foreign Excess PPT/Royalty and Foreign Excess Crude Accounts, it was observed that during the year 2016, amount totalling $6 million and $3.5 million were credited to the Foreign PPT/Royalty and Foreign Excess Crude Account as interest on funds investments.
“The authority for placing the funds which yielded the above interests totaling $9.5 million in deposit account, the principal sums deposited, the tenor and rate of interest were not made available for audit verification.
“This observation had also been a subject of my reports since 2017 without any positive response from Central Bank of Nigeria.
“Records made available for audit further revealed that the balance in the foreign PPT/Royaltt and Foreign Excess Crude accounts as at 28th December 2016 were USD0.00 and USD251,826 respectively.
“This suggests the foreign PPT/Royalty was depleted before the year-end.
“The Accountant General has been requested to provide the authority for the funds invested, the tenue of the investment, rate unrest payable, certificate for the funds invested and forward same for audit verification.”
In a similar vein, the Senate panel also summoned the apex bank over N121 billion outstanding fuel subsidy for 2014 said to have been paid to Independent Petroleum Marketers in 2016.
