…Accountant General plans to earn more non-oil revenue through automation***
Tension is now brewing in the Niger Delta following Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCO) declaration that court judgment on $3.6 billion fine, over the December 20, 2011 oil spill in parts of Niger Delta is not binding.
The fine comprised 1.8 billion dollars as compensation for damage to natural resources and consequential loss of income by the affected shoreline communities and a punitive damage of 1.8 billion dollars.
Shell, operator of the Bonga oil field where the spill occurred, had approached the courts to challenge the powers of National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) to impose fines on it.
Mr Bamidele Odugbesan, Media Relations Manager at Shell explained on Tuesday that the judgment merely clarified that NOSDRA had no powers to impose fine but did not compel it to pay the fine.
“The Dec. 20, 2011 Bonga spill was a regrettable operational incident that was effectively contained and cleaned up as a result of efforts by SNEPCo, regulators and other industry resources from within and outside Nigeria.
“There is no decision of any court requiring SNEPCo to make any monetary payment,’’ he said.
Odugbesan said that SNEPCo had appealed against the judgments.
According to him, they are contrary to previous judgments of the Federal High Court and Court of Appeal that NOSDRA does not have the powers to assess and or impose compensations or fines in respect of oil spills.
“The judgment was in respect of the powers of NOSDRA to impose fines and there is no decision of any court requiring SNEPCo to make any monetary payment as a result of the spill.”
Justice Mojisola Olatoregun of a Federal High Court in Lagos however, on June 20, upheld the $3.6 billion fine imposed on Shell by NOSDRA, dismissing Shell’s case.
Sequel to the Dec. 20, 2011 spill, NOSDRA in March 2015, imposed the fine on Shell for discharging 40,000 barrels of crude into the Atlantic Ocean.
The fine comprised 1.8 billion dollars as compensation for damage to natural resources and consequential loss of income by the affected shoreline communities and a punitive damage of 1.8 billion dollars.
The spill occurred during loading of crude at Bonga fields within OML 118 situated 120 kilometres off the Atlantic coastline, the export line ruptured and discharged crude into the sea.
The export line, according to a joint investigation report by NOSDRA and SNEPCO, spewed about 40,000 barrels (6.4 million litres) of crude oil into the sea.
Meanwhile, the Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, says the automation of collection and management of non oil revenue is critical to increasing revenue generation and sustenance in the country.
Idris stated this on Tuesday in a paper entitled, “Automation of Payment System for Efficiency in the Non-oil Sector”, presented at the ongoing 3-day conference of the National Council on Finance and Economic Development (NACOFED) holding in Kaduna.
He said that the automation as opposed to manual processing, collection, management and reporting of government non oil revenue would also block leakages.
He explained that the non-oil revenue, commonly referred to as Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) include tax, operating surplus, tender fees, proceeds from sales of government assets and stores and licences.
“Others are mining rents, rent on government properties, investment income, interest earned and all other revenue that accrue exclusively to the Federal or state governments.
“For example, the projected total Federal Government revenue for 2017, 2018 and 2019 stand at N6.6 billion; N6.3 billion and N6.8 billion respectively.
“The non-oil revenue accounts for 37 per cent, 51 per cent and 56 per cent respectively.
“This underscore the rising significance of the non-oil revenue in Nigerians fiscal profile,” he said.
Idris stressed that the much-needed efficiency required in harnessing the vast potentials in non oil revenues can only be achieved through full automation.
According to him, government must as a matter of priority, focus more attention to this critical element to boosting its revenue base away from oil by committing more resources for its actualization.
“The automation of non-oil revenue such as tax and customs duties for example provides payers with an avenue for self-service and promotes voluntary compliance and offers convenience through easy to use e-payments platforms.
“It also brings about efficiency and reduction in cost and the readily available data from automated systems assist in planning and decision making.”
The AG said that the Federal Government Integrated Financial Management Information System has aided the collection, accounting, reporting and management of government revenue.
He also said that the combined implementation of the Treasury Single Account and automation of Federal Government collection processes have brought immense, tangible, measurable and verifiable benefits.
“Among the benefits is huge savings on interest charges. For example, as at the last count, TSA saves government over N42 billion monthly on ways and means charges.
“However, while the capacity of our people to use ICT has improved rapidly over the years, the availability of local capacity for support and maintenance has not seen much improvement.
“This creates problems for sustainability and funding at a time when government is passing through funding constrain,” he said.
