DPR rescued Nigerian govt, remitted funds for April allocations to states — Sylva
NEWS DIGEST – The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva has revealed that the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, rescued Nigeria from a financial crisis by remitting funds to the Federation Account Allocation Committee, FAAC, in April.
This was disclosed by the minister in an interview with newsmen in Abuja.
Recall that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, in a document attached to a letter addressed to the Accountant-General of the Federation dated April 26, indicated that it would not make any remittance for the April and May FAAC after paying fuel subsidy from its revenue.
Mr Sylva noted that since the DPR collected royalties on behalf of the federal government, it was able to fill the vacuum left by the NNPC in contributing to the federation account.
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The minister, who did not mention the exact amount the DPR provided, revealed that revenues from marginal field programmes were of use when the nation was in dire need of funds to share among the federating units.
“I can’t say what the figure is, but the DPR has always contributed to the federation revenue because they collect royalties, so they’ll continue to contribute.
“But as to filling the gap, it’ll not always be there because NNPC has not said after not being able to contribute in May, it’ll stop entirely.
“NNPC has not announced it again. So, we cannot say for how long DPR is going to keep paying,” he added.
According to Mr Sylva, the government backtracked on petrol subsidy removal due to the backlash from marketers when the price of the commodity increased.
“As far back as March 2020, we announced subsidy deregulation and we successfully practiced it for a few months before some people came in and started threatening when the price was moving up.
“We had to come back because we’re in a democracy and a listening government, thus, decided to discuss with stakeholders.
“That was why it looked as if we stepped back a bit but the deregulation was already announced and a date was taken.”
