NDDC Disowns UK Private Account for Remittance Of 3% Levy By Oil Companies
The Oasis Reporters
October 10, 2020
Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC says that it has received reports of a security agency, working with unauthorised private individuals, who have been coercing international oil companies to pay the three percent levy due to the Commission to a private account in the United Kingdom.
The Commission finds this development alarming, calling it “a clear case of illegality by elements within that security agency”.
They therefore state that the law setting up NDDC does not provide for the collection of its revenue by any agency other than the Commission.
“*Secondly, extant rules, particularly the Treasury Single Account (TSA) regime, mean that all revenue due to any agency of government can only be paid to that agency’s account in the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The Niger Delta Development Commission wishes to alert the general public and all stakeholders that it has not authorized any security agency to collect remittances on its behalf. Such payments and or remittances shall never count as statutory payments to the NDDC.
Accordingly, any oil company, invited on such purposes should insist on payment of any such sum to the NDDC account with the Central Bank of Nigeria but not to any other agency’s account.
Any security agency wishing to recover unremitted funds from the IOCs or oil companies operating in the Niger Delta region should do so in collaboration with the management of the NDDC and such refunds should be directed into the accounts of the NDDC with the Central Bank of Nigeria, but not otherwise”
Any oil company coerced to make such payments should report same immediately to Mr Clever Okoro, Director, Legal Services, of the Commission on +234 813 011 7590, according to a press release signed by the Commission’s director of Corporate Affairs,Charles Obi Odili.
