Non-passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) by the National Assembly causes uncertainties over oil sector policies, Mr Umana Okon Umana, Managing Director, Oil and Gas Free Zones Area (OGFZA), has said.
He said this on Wednesday in Abuja during the Nigeria Economic Outlook Conference, 2017, adding that the situation impeded investors’ interests.
Umana said that investors were afraid to commit themselves because they were not sure of what to expect in the future.
“The PIB, when passed into law, will be another milestone because the problem has always been uncertainty.
“Investors who come to the sector want to be certain about what the policies will be over a long time and where the legal framework is weak, you cannot predict what will happen.
“So I believe that the PIB will fit well and take care of the interests of various stakeholders and players including the communities.
“It is more about setting the ground rules so the players can know where exactly they stand,’’ he said.
Commenting on the crude oil production projection of 2.2 billion barrels per day in the 2017 budget presented to the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari, Umana said it was achievable and realistic.
He also said that the fact that government was working out measures to address the issues that led to disruptions in production of crude oil was commendable.
Commenting on taxation and revenue generation, Mr Niyi Akinsanya, Managing Partner, Dox’ix Consult, said that government had good reasons for encouraging small businesses.
“One of the reasons the government is encouraging people to go into small businesses is because the more businesses they have, the more businesses they bring into the tax net.’’
He, however, said that if tax authorities operated maximally, they would generate more tax without necessarily having to add more to the taxes paid.
Akinsanya also said that many people and organisations were not paying as much as they should pay.
“Many people are not paying as much tax as they should pay, but the way the tax authorities are going, they are trying to tighten up all their loose ends but they are pushing people real hard.
“They come up with different laws and policies to make people pay more taxes, but there are loopholes.
“For instance, if you want to register a company in Nigeria and you get a certificate without registering with tax authorities, that in itself is a loophole for tax evasion,’’ he said.
Akinsanya advised the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to cooperate to eliminate the tax loopholes.
Mrs Chinelo Anohu-Amazu, Director-General, National Pension Commission, commenting on using pension funds to finance infrastructure development, said that it was permitted by law and that the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages.
Represented by Mr Ehimeme Ohioma, she said that in Nigeria, pension funds should actually impact on infrastructural development.
She added that the types of infrastructure that pension funds could be used to finance were those that could have return on investment like roads and railway.
Anohu-Amazu, however, said that the challenge was that Nigeria currently did not have pension bonds.
The conference was organised by Time Economics in collaboration with the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) and the Business Post. (NAN)
FOF/JEO/IA