The House of Representatives Joint Committee on Finance and National Planning have directed the Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) to provide details of oil production, crude sales and other activities in the Upstream Petroleum Industry in the country.

The committee, which gave the order at the ongoing interactive session with key agencies on the 2025-2027 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP), also directed the Pension Transitional Arrangement Department (PTAD) and the Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET)

Chairman of the Committee on Finance, James Faleke and his colleagues were not convinced with the agency’s personnel and overhead expenditure, especially NUPRC as contained in the documents presented before them.

Faleke said, “I’m wondering what type of organisation you have.You are paying N88 billion as salaries. How many staff do you have?

“The National Assembly, before the review, gave us N150 billion in the year. All, Including management- Senate, House of Reps, management, everybody.

“So if only your agency is spending N88 billion. That’s why you have so much money because of the 4% collection. 4% is too much. We need money…you are spending N88 billion on personnel, and you are spending over N40 billion on overhead”.

Faleke said, “You are going to come back with all the records of all the wells that produce the oil litre by litre per day. How much oil we get from here every day?

“You are going to come back with records of shipments of crude either daily or weekly at what rate. You are going to come back with proposals of 2025 as to the expectations of two million five barrels per day, N2.06 million per day”.

Before the directive, the Executive Commissioner of Economic Regulation and Strategic Planning, Babajide, who represented the CEO, Gbenga Komolafe disclosed that NUPRC derive its various revenues from oil royalty, gas royalty, concession rental, gas flat penalty, miscellaneous oil revenues, which include fines and levies, signature bonus and renewal of licences.

He said that NUPRC gets 4% Cost Of Revenue Collection (CORC) for the total revenue collected on behalf of the federal government, which he said was credited directly to the Federation Account and FAAC credits the 4% to the Commission.

He said, “The Cost Of Revenue Collection amounted to N114.84 billion in 2023 as against N114.38 billion in 2022. The amount released in 2023 includes N2.82 billion for Capital Expenditure, though N173.77 billion was due as 4% of the Actual Collections of N14.34 Trillion in 2023.

“The Commission also generates revenues internally such as Registration Fees, Licence Fees, Fines, Recoveries, etc. It generated N1.44 billion in 2023 compared to N30.08 billion in 2022, and this accounts for 1.26% of the total Revenue realized in 2023 and 2.62% in 2022 respectively.

Fasina however informed the committee that, the Commission recorded a high expenditure in 2023 compared to 2022 by N11.46 billion which he said was an increase of 10.83%.

He added, “Personnel Cost which has the largest share amounting to N82.35 billion represents 70.19% of the total expenses of N117.33 billion, followed by Overhead Costs of N31.63 billion which accounts for 26.96 billion”.

The NUPRC Executive Commissioner however informed that the Commission’s non-tax remittance dropped from N3.67 billion in 2022 to N1.77 billion in 2023 and an Amorisation and Depreciation of N246.66 million and N1.33 billion respectively.

Similarly, the committee also directed the Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET) PLC to provide specific details on its budget performance and other activities in the electricity market.

The agency had in its submission given reasons for the disparity between Generation Companies (Gencos) invoices and the amount invoices to Distribution Companies (DisCos).

The agency’s documents stated, “NBET invoices DisCos before receiving and verifying GenCo invoices as required by the settlement Calendar. This timing difference means that components such as interest and True-Up, which are included in GenCo invoices cannot be reflected in the invoices sent to DisCos, Consequently, the mismatch in timing leads to discrepancies in the amounts of invoices.

“Apart from the DisCos, other off-takers such as Ajaokuta Steel Company and Net Importer Generation Companies are included in the invoicing process. The inclusion of these off-takers introduces further complexities that contribute to the disparity between actual invoices and the amounts invoices to DisCos.

Also, the committee directed PTAD to provide details of what is required by the Committee from the agency.

The directive was given by the Committee after its Executive Secretary, Tolulope Odunaiya alongside its Director, Finance and Accounts, Abubakar Sadiq, the Director, Corporate Services, Sani Mustapha appeared at the interactive session on Thursday.