BEVERLY HILLS, February 03, (THEWILL) – The Adhoc committee of the House of Representatives investigating the oil swap scandal has issued a 24-hour ultimatum to Transfigura company to provide evidence of all taxes paid in Netherlands, on the export of crude oil from Nigeria and imported refined petroleum products back to the country.
Zakari Mohammed, Chairman of the ad-hoc committee, issued the notice during the ongoing investigative hearing on the refined product exchange agreement/crude oil swap between the NNPC/Petroleum Pipelines Marketing Companies and some oil firms.
Duke Global Energy Investment Limited, a subsidiary of NNPC, was incorporated on June 7, 2011, through which 445,000 barrel of crude oil per day were lifted and traded with Transfigura, along with three other companies in exchange for refined petroleum products.
The five shareholders of Duke Global Energy Investment Limited are Austin Oniwon, Attahir Yusuf, Musa Yola Usman, Kimashinor Nwakalo-Imu and NNPC.
According to the committee, Transfigura, which lifted over 12.5 million metric tons of crude oil, through the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC), did not pay mandatory tax on all its transactions.
James Juslin, Transfigura’s managing director, West Africa, confirmed that “the company does not have an office in Nigeria, but has independent agents.
“Our vessels arrive on Nigerian waters, and we appoint independent agents to carry out our obligations on our behalf. It can be various agents, but we consistently use one or two. They take the document, notice of readiness and tender it to the PPMC, the vessel waits until it is programmed by the PPMC, it can wait for two weeks, or three months, but Transfigura has no more responsibility to it.”
Meanwhile, officials of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) were undecided as to whether Transfigura qualifies to pay tax or not.
In his testimony, Peter Olayemi, FIRS director, who listed all the conditions to be met for a company whether registered in Nigeria or abroad, to be taxed, could not state categorically if Transfigura met the requirement.
Olayemi said the FIRS needed to peruse the agreement signed with NNPC before determination.
Meanwhile, Austin Oniwon, former group managing director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and others are expected to appear before the committee to explain their roles in the award of oil swap contract.
Story by David Oputah
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