Indications emerged yesterday that $1.03 billion is missing from Nigeria’s Excess Crude Account (ECA) in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
This disclosure came to the fore during the JointSenate Committee of Finance and Appropriations on the 2013 budget and federal revenue-generating agencies.
A member of the committee, Senator Ita Enang and Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Finance Minister, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, gave different figures of funds accruing to the ECA.
In the first instance, Senator Enang, quoting from records available to the committee, said so far, $14.06 billion was inflows to the ECA, while $9 billion is outflow, leaving a balance of $5.06. The minister, who did not tell the committee how much accrued to ECA said there is a balance of $4.03 billion.
The difference in figures started when Senator Enang asked Okonjo-Iweala how much Nigeria has in the ECA, how much goes to the SWF and what the ECA is used for.
The minister replied that the balance in the ECA stands at $4.3 billion and the “primary use is in the payment of oil subsidy for the country…Money goes in and comes out almost immediately.”
She also informed the committee that the ECA is being managed by the CBN.
Senator Enang, who also chairs the Rules and Business Committee, on his part, stated that from records available to them, the ECA has a balance of $14.06 billion as inflow, while outflow reflects $9 billion to which the minister replied: “It’s a federation account matter. It belongs to all tiers of government. When we pay subsidy, it belongs to all tiers of government. So, the Federal Government, states and local governments are all partakers.”
The minister did not, however, counter Senator Enang’s figures before the committee.
On the status of the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF), she said: “The SWF has $1billion; there have been no further payments into the SWF, as far as I know.”
She admitted that there were leakages within the economy, “with regards to non-oil revenue,” adding: “We have launched actions to block those leakages.”
Also, the minister categorically denied that the Federal Government is paying subsidy on kerosene.
Last week, Chairman of the House Committee on Petroleum Downstream, Dakuku Peterside, said government had paid N634 billion to subsidise kerosene in the last three years.
Giving the breakdown of the amount, which Peterside said was spent over three years, he disclosed that about N110 billion was spent in 2010; N324 billion in 2011 and N200 billion was expended in 2012. No figure was given for 2013.
In an exchange between the minister and Senator Bukola Saraki, a member of the committee, it emerged that not only does government not pay any subsidy on kerosene, any outflow from the ECA was used to pay for PMS subsidy.
Saraki, who also chairs the Committee on Environment and Ecology, pointedly asked the Finance Minister if government pays subsidy on kerosene and she replied that the figures she quoted was for payment on PMS subsidy.
Not satisfied, thrice, Saraki asked the minister whether payments from the ECA included subsidy for kerosene to which she firmly replied: “Payment is for PMS only. It doesn’t include kerosene. I think NNPC should answer the question on subsidy for kerosene.”
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has said that the Federal Government has lost N603, 236, 211, 198.93 billion. Out of this figure, waivers on petroleum products gulped a hefty N236, 881, 899, 749.05.
NCS Comptroller General, Abdullahi Dikko, told the committee that eight different reasons are responsible for the loss.