The Senate has begun probing crude oil and gas and non-oil export proceeds unrepatriated since the inspection of the Export Act from 1996 to 2019.
The Senate has adopted a
motion on “Need to investigate pre-shipment inspection of export activities in
Nigeria with respect to non-repatriation of crude oil export proceeds in line
with pre-shipment inspection of export Act CAP-P26 Laws of the Federation of
Nigeria 2004, vis-Ã -vis challenges posed by global COVID-19 pandemic.”
The motion was sponsored by
Sen. Yusuf Yusuf (APC-Taraba) during Wednesday’s plenary.
Moving the motion, the
senator said that the pre-shipment inspection of export was the inspection of
goods (oil and non-oil) in Nigeria prior to the shipment of those goods outside
Nigeria as provided under the pre-shipment inspection of export Act CAP-P26 Laws
of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.
“The period prior to the
pre-shipment inspection of export enactment, export of crude oil and gas was
characterised by under valuation and delays in issuance of invoices and
payments for goods, sometimes up to 120 days.”
The resolutions of the upper
chamber were unanimously adopted by the senators after voice votes by President
of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan.
Thereafter, the Senate
mandated its committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions
to ascertain why relevant government agencies kept on having conflicting data
of same product value published in Nigeria on one hand while those published by
OPEC were different.
Meanwhile, the Senate
President Ahmad Lawan said that the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) would be
considered for second reading in two weeks.
“We have asked for copies to
be made and I want to believe that almost everyone has a copy.
“So we study this bill, it’s
so critical, it’s so important and then we take the second reading in two weeks
so that we have sufficient time to go through the bill.
”It’s a big bill and it is a
crucial bill,” Lawan said.
The News Agency of Nigeria
reports that the Senate passed for second reading the PIB.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Disclaimer: Comment expressed do not reflect the opinion of African Parliamentary News