PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the Ministry of Finance to sell all recovered and liability-free assets in six months.
Some politicians and former government officials had their assets seized in the course of the anti-graft war of the Buhari administration.
Speaking Tuesday while briefing the House of Representatives Joint Committee on Finance, Appropriation, Planning and Economic Development, ex-minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma, said the Federal Government was determined to improve its revenue generation this year.
He said: “The Ministry of Finance, working with all the relevant authorities, has been authorised to take action to liquidate all recovered, unencumbered assets within six months.
“The Department of Petroleum Resources has been directed to, within three months, complete the collection of past-due oil licence and royalty charges, including those due from Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) (a subsidiary of NNPC), which it had agreed to pay since 2017.”
Udoma told the lawmakers that the President directed that work should be concluded on the deployment of the National Trade Window to enhance customs collections efficiency from the current 64 per cent to up to 90 per cent over the next few years.
He attributed the government’s inability to meet its revenue target last year to the non-implementation of some one-off items.
According to Udoma, these items include the N710 billion from Oil Joint Venture Asset restructuring and N320 billion from the revision of the Oil Production Sharing Contract legislation/terms which have now been rolled over to this year.
Speaking on the production quota agreed to by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Udoma said there is no quota set for condensates.
“Mr. President has directed the NNPC to take all possible measures to achieve the targeted oil production of 2.3 million barrels per day.”
