NLNG Says Battle With NIMASA Over Levies Continues

Despite paying $140Million to the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas has declared that it agreed to the ‘consent order’ grudgingly and that its legal battle with the apex maritime agency regulatory body goes on.
The bodies have been at logger heads over alleged non- payment of statutory levies and taxes amounting to about N20Billion by the gas company.
But on July 12, 2013, Federal High Court settled the rift with a consenting order agreed to by the two parties.
In a statement issued after the court sitting, NLNG confirmed that it has agreed to pay the levies, albeit, “under protest”, “until a judicial ruling on whether these payments are justified can be obtained.”
It vowed to continue the legal suit over its exemption from certain levies, such as the ones being demanded by NIMASA.
According to the NLNG, the blockade of its vessels has cost the company revenues loss of “over N76 billion ($475 million), 65% of which belongs to the Federal Government, which has thus lost about N50b in dividend, taxes, etc. The blockade had also led to scarcity of cooking gas with attendant spiraling cost and worsening hardship on the populace, reduction of domestic gas to power, shutdown of offshore and onshore production facilities, etc. In addition it has caused huge reputational damages to NLNG and Nigeria.”
It argued further, its justification to be exempted from levies, NLNG maintained that “under the terms of the NLNG Act and will continue with its substantive case in court to obtain a judicial determination of whether or not such levies are due to be paid. It is for this reason that the payments that NLNG is making will be made on an “under protest” basis”.
According to the gas company, its “dispute with NIMASA has absolutely nothing to do with tax as misconstrued in some quarters, but with levies which the laws explicitly exempts it from paying.”
According to its Managing Director, Mr Babs Omotowa, its argument “has nothing to do with how much NLNG is being charged by a relevant agency but with the legality or otherwise of such a charge or levy, in order for us to ensure that all our payments are made within the ambit of what is lawful”.

“As a law abiding company, NLNG has always paid its taxes, including those due after its tax holidays since 2009. It therefore has no issues with legally required tax payments but with levies, from which it is clearly exempt by virtue of the NLNG Act,” he added.

NLNG is owned by four shareholders, namely, the Federal Government of Nigeria, represented by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC (49%), Shell Gas BV (25.6%), Total LNG Nigeria Limited (15%), and Eni International (N.A,) N. V. S. a. r. l (10.4%).