In a bid to beat the July deadline for the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), the House of Representatives Ad hoc
The meeting, which held for five hours at the
The Chief Whip of the House,
Also after his meeting with President
This newspaper had reported the position of some of the International Oil Companies (IOCs) on the bill during the exercise.
His presentation was adopted by
The IOCs raised concerns about multiple-taxation, arbitrary powers of the regulatory agencies, adding that there was a need for "PIB to explicitly preserve base businesses and rights for existing Joint Venture licenses and leases and Production Sharing Contracts, which form the basis for future growth."
"Under the PIB, several agencies have the power to make final rulings on matters without recourse to the judiciary or independent arbitration. Access to a fair and independent dispute resolution mechanism is key in providing an equitable and stable investment environment and is a globally accepted practice,"
'
Meanwhile, the spokesperson of the House,
He revealed that the committee will be meeting again on Tuesday to deliberate on the proposed legislation.
According to the lawmaker, "there is a need for the fiscal regime to be competitive enough to incentivise investors to the sector."
"You saw me coming out from the PIB section, we sat down from 11 'o'clock, till 4 o'clock We summoned the minister of petroleum. We summoned the GMD of NNPC, and we have been deliberating on this bill,"
"We will meet again next Tuesday, to fine-tune the grey areas, the bill is in order, just a few grey areas that need to be fine-tuned. issues of frontier states, the host community, hopefully, we will be able to meet the time we have set for ourselves."
Concerns
On the concerns raised by the IOCs, the lawmaker said the bill would be structured in a manner that is beneficial to the companies and
"The law must be structured in a manner that will become a win-win for the host country and the IOCs, and even better competitiveness in comparison with other newly found oil nations across
"This is because there must be a selling point for the IOCs to bring the funds, the selling point could be the tax regime, the deductions that are made on the financial burden--every investor wants to know his exit route, when he is going, is it going to be a lose through that exit or a gain. It is only when it is profitable that they will come in.
"If you attended that public hearing, you will agree with me that the IOCs were represented there, and they made their presentation there. So, their concerns were considered in the cause of framing this bill as it is, we are still working on the bill--here is a copy, we have narrowed it down to these grey areas.
"So in the end, the interest of the IOCs must be protected, but not to the detriment of our nation, we must balance it in a way that it will become the beautiful bride that every investor will like to bring in money.
"The investors are looking at this law right now, if it goes well, it will bring in money, and if it goes bad, they will not come, that is why we have asked the lawmakers to remove sentiments, sectionalism, ethnic interest and other interests, and put
Background
The PIB was first introduced into the
The 6th
The bill was reintroduced into the
A few hours to the end of the 7th Assembly (2011-2015), 47 out of the 360 members of the
The bill, however, failed to get a concurrent passage from the
Copyright Premium Times. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com)., source