The acrimony between Bayelsa State government and multinational oil<\/p>\n
companies deepened on Thursday with Governor Henry Seriake Dickson,
\nseeking the intervention of the Presidency over tax evasion, flagrant
\ndisregard to laws and non-compliance with the rules and regulations of the
\ncountry.<\/p>\n
Among the oil companies identified as major culprits in tax evasion
\ninclude Shell Petroleum Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC); Nigerian Agip
\nOil Company Limited (NAOC); Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL); Consolidated
\nOil (CL); Conoil Producing; Brass LNG and Aiteo Energy.<\/p>\n
Dickson in a letter he personally wrote to President Muhammadu Buhari and
\nVice President Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), dated April 18 2016 and obtained by
\nState House Correspondents on Thursday in Abuja, pleaded that the
\ngovernment should not support the oil companies.<\/p>\n
“Our further position is that the Federal Government and its agencies
\nshould not condone or support irresponsible behaviour by these companies
\nwhose conduct subvert and undermine the authority of the State and our
\neconomy especially in the areas we have legislative authority such as
\nDevelopment Control, taxes permitted by Federal Laws and other
\nlegislations within the residual powers of the State”, he said.<\/p>\n
He specifically complained about defaults by oil and gas companies
\noperating in the state to pay taxes and levies over time.<\/p>\n
Dickson therefore, urged the President to use his good offices to prevail
\non the companies concerned, who are licencees of the Federal Government,
\nto comply with the laws of the state and that of the country.<\/p>\n
Our correspondent reports that the SPDC’s facility in Gbaran Ubie
\nIntegrated Oil and Gas, was recently sealed over charges of default in the
\npayment of taxes and levies.<\/p>\n
The Executive Secretary of Bayelsa State Physical Planning and Development
\nBoard (BSPPDB), Boro Ige-Edaba, had in a statement earlier this week,
\nannounced the sealing of the property, relying on an eviction order issued
\nby the State High Court in Yenagoa.<\/p>\n
He said the eviction order had granted the government of Bayelsa State
\nleave to effect the eviction of SPDC and all occupants of the premises to
\nenable the Physical Planning and Development Board conduct environmental,
\nhealth, technical integrity and safety checks on the facility.<\/p>\n
Ige-Edaba contended that the facility was built without a building permit
\n(called Development Permit) as required by Law.<\/p>\n
The eviction order had granted the government of Bayelsa State leave to
\neffect the eviction of SPDC and all occupants of the premises to enable
\nthe Physical Planning and Development Board conduct environmental, health,
\ntechnical integrity and safety checks on the facility.<\/p>\n
The facility was said to have been built without a building permit (called
\nDevelopment Permit) as required by Law.<\/p>\n
The Court had also directed the Commissioner of Police, the Commander of
\nthe Joint Task Force (JTF) and all security agencies to facilitate the
\nenforcement of the eviction.<\/p>\n
But Dickson in his letter, chronicled the various negative exploration
\nactivities of the oil and gas companies operating in the state over a long
\nperiod of time by refusing to pay land use service charges and development
\nlevies thereby impinging on the environment especially through spillage
\nand indeed economy of the state.
\nDickson emphasised the strategic nature of Bayelsa State as host community
\nand the concomitant tremendous impact on the expenditure outlay of the
\nstate government in terms of security, community relations and other
\nrelated expenditure as it strives to ensure a conducive and peaceful
\nenvironment for the operators who are mostly multinationals.<\/p>\n
He regretted, however, that the major oil firms have not been realistic by
\ncontributing proportionally to the economy and development of the state, a
\nsituation, he said, needed to be reversed.<\/p>\n
\u201cSadly, the compliance level of the oil and gas exploration and production
\ncompanies in payment of levies and taxes is very low and in fact,
\npitiable\u201d, he stated.<\/p>\n
While insisting that the situation, contravened the relevant legislations
\nin the state, the governor accused the affected companies of not employing
\nindigenes of the state nor awarding contracts to them.<\/p>\n
He also claimed that these companies do not have offices in the state,
\nwhile only a negligible percentage of their staff pay the Pay As You Earn
\n(PAYE) tax as a basic legal obligation.<\/p>\n
He listed the taxes and levies to include Pay As You Earn (PAYE),
\nInfrastructure Maintenance Charge or levy, Development levy, Land Use
\nCharge, Environmental (Ecological) Fees or levies, Property tax and
\nBusiness Premises Registration.<\/p>\n
The sealed Shell facility at Gbaran, Dickson stated, occupied a massive
\nland area that is half of the size of Lagos Island measuring 2 million
\nsquare metres whereas, Lagos Island occupies about 3.9 million square
\nmetres.<\/p>\n
He claimed that likes of Shell all the other oil and gas companies occupy
\nsuch large land areas without due commitment in terms of taxes and levies
\nnor do they get relevant permits before embarking on construction at their
\nvarious facilities.as required by law.<\/p>\n
Dickson said, \u201cMultinational Oil and Gas companies occupy large spaces of
\nscarce land resource in the State without a commensurate contribution to
\nthe economy of the State. Beyond this, they also deliberately flout and
\ncontravene the laws of the State and of Nigeria. They do not pay taxes to
\nthe State.<\/p>\n
\u201cSPDC has never paid the Bayelsa State Infrastructure Maintenance Levy
\n(BIM) since the commencement of the law in 2003. Additionally, none of
\nthese SPDC<\/p>\n
assets in the State have Development Permits. Consequently, no levies
\nrelating to and required for the procurement of Development Permit or
\nother levies and taxes have ever been paid.<\/p>\n
“For instance, the Gbaran Ubie Oil and Gas project was developed by SPDC
\non about 2 million sq. m of land (more than half of Lagos Island) in
\nBayelsaState without a Development Permit and commissioned in 2010 despite
\nStop-work orders and Notices since 2008 for SPDC to discontinue with the
\nDevelopment which had no Permit. Till date, SPDC has still not obtained a
\nDevelopment Permit and has continued to operate theillegalstructure for 6
\nyears. The State Government and its agencies are now enforcing compliance
\nto applicable laws and standards.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aside these listed cases of contraventions and non-compliances, Dickson
\nalso said that other applicable taxes and levies are not being paid or
\ncomplied with by any of the listed Oil and Gas Companies.<\/p>\n
The governor added this: \u201cMr. President, the Government of Bayelsa State
\nis concerned that the Oil and Gas Companies deliberately flout and
\ncontravene the laws of State and Nigeria in particular, the State
\nenvironmental laws, the Physical Planning and Development law and other
\nState and national laws that bring tax and levy revenues to Bayelsa State.
\n\u201cWhile we have played host to some of these companies, some since 1956,
\nthese companies have not contributed much to the economic development of
\nthe State, needless to say the numerous security issues the State has had
\nto manage on account of their operations and the attendant degradation of
\nthe environment occasioned by their activities.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, these Oil and Gas Companies have neglected, refused and
\nfailed to comply with extant laws. Rather, they use their preeminent
\nposition as the main drivers of the economy and their connections with
\nofficials and agencies of the Federal Government to frustrate and
\nundermine the economy and authority of the State to avoid meeting their
\ntax and other statutory obligations.<\/p>\n
“Our State has clearly borne the brunt of the operations of all these
\nmulti-nationals all these years. Our position as a federating unit under
\nthe Constitution and laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is that the
\nmining and Operating Licences, exclusively granted by the Federal
\nGovernment, cannot be used as a basis for avoiding responsible behaviour
\nrequired by the laws of Bayelsa State.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur further position is that the Federal Government and its agencies
\nshould not condone or support irresponsible behaviourby these companies
\nwhose conduct subvert and undermine the authority of the State and our
\neconomy especially in the areas we have where we have legislative
\nauthority such as Development Control,taxes permitted by Federal Laws and
\nother legislations within the residual powers of the State.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Government of Bayelsa State assures Mr. President that its agencies
\nand officials will follow due process in the enforcement of all the laws
\nof the State in this regard. In all cases, the laws of the State have made
\nprovisions for judicial intervention where parties shall have
\nopportunities to ventilate their grievances if dissatisfied.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is our expectation that the Federal Government will instruct all our
\nFederal Agencies, particularly the Security Forces, not to obstruct the
\ndue processes of enforcement of our state laws or be used to harass or
\nintimidate State officials or citizens involved in the process of
\nenforcement of the Tax and other laws of the state.<\/p>\n
“In any such event to contrary, we shall have no option than to seek
\njudicial redress to preserve our integrity as a State and guarantee our
\neconomic survival.<\/p>\n
“Mr. President, under these circumstances, I humbly urge you to use your
\nesteemed and good office to prevail on these companies, who are licensees
\nof the Federal Government, to comply with the laws of the State and of our
\nCountry.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The acrimony between Bayelsa State government and multinational oil companies deepened on Thursday with Governor Henry Seriake Dickson, seeking the intervention of the Presidency over tax evasion, flagrant disregard to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48693,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n