The opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has denied accusations by the governing All Progressives Congress, APC, that successive administrations never remitted any dividend paid by the Nigeria Liquefied Natural gas, NLNG, until the current administration of Muhammadu Buhari.
The APC spokesperson, Lai Mohammed, had earlier on Sunday issued a statement asking the Federal Government to urgently unravel what happened to the past Company Income Tax / Education Tax as well as dividends paid to the Nigerian government by the NLNG, against the background of published reports that the funds were never paid into the Federation Account as they should have been.
In its response by its spokesperson, Olisa Metuh, the PDP on Sunday described the statement by Mr. Mohammed as “misleading and outright falsehood.”
Mr. Metuh said the truth is that the NLNG had been on a 10-year tax haven until 2014.
“Within this period, successive governments, right from President Olusegun Obasanjo never shared nor tampered with the cumulative dividends over the years,” he said.
The federal government had last week shared over $2.1 to the three tiers of government. It said the money came from the payments made by the NLNG and other sources in the middle of June 2015.
Mr. Mohammed had claimed the payment so shared is the first time such lodgements was being disclosed by any government, in addition to paying it into the Federation Account for sharing.
However, Mr. Metuh said whatever taxes paid from the NLNG in the past went through the Federal Inland Revenue Services, FIRS, and recorded as part of the income of the Federal Government.
“It is imperative to note that by the end of the tenure of President Goodluck Jonathan, NLNG dividends had risen to a cumulative $5.6billion and not a single cent was ever taken from the funds,” he said.
He also said although it is within the rights of the APC administration to spend the funds in any way they may decide, “it is however cruel for them to inflict on us all such malicious falsehood while the current Presidency without the benefit of economic advisers and relevant statutory organs of government, unilaterally decided to deplete the funds without thinking of the attendant future investments and financial obligations of Nigeria in the NLNG project
“The APC must note that there is a limit to propaganda and lies. Now is the time for governance and this government has shown total unpreparedness to face the challenges of governance at the centre,” Mr. Metuh said.
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