Host communities in the nine oil-producing states have called for the scrapping of the
This is just as the Minister of State for
The National President of the Oil Host Communities (HOSTCOM), Chief
He cited the NDDC, which he described as a cesspool of corruption, as the least impactful.
He said: "What government is supposed to add to the new PIB is scrapping of NDDC and the establishment of
Tams insisted that 2.5 per cent proposed in the new PIB is unacceptable to the host communities.
He said: "What we want is 10 per cent equity remittance from the various oil firms to respective host communities as proposed in the PIB considered in the 7th
"It is even very annoying that having reduced the 10 per cent to five per cent in the last bill considered by the eighth
"This is not acceptable to us as host communities of the oil-producing firms. The 10 per cent earlier proposed must be worked upon if the bill is to be acceptable to the various communities bearing the brunt."
Tams, in an earlier presentation, had said that it would be absurd and economically illogical to deprive "HostCom" the right to equity shareholding in both the establishment of the
The host communities added that "this quest to take over complete control of all our national assets by a very unpatriotic few has to stop".
Sylva, however, said the 2.5 per cent proposed for the host communities in the new bill is fair.
"I speak advisably as a member of the host community myself. If you have to look at it properly, you will see that 10 per cent of profit is different from 10 per cent of the operation cost from the various oil firms.
"Before now, you had the provision of 10 per cent of profit and profit means that if I don't declare it, you don't have anything. I can decide to say 100 per cent of profit and not declare any profit, so you don't get anything.
"But in this case, it's 2.5 per cent of the OPEX. So, at the end of the year, you look at your operating cost and take 2.5 per cent of that cost to the budget of the next year. As far as we are concerned, we have made a very fair proposal. Fair to the host communities, to the country and to the oil companies," he stated.
He added that provisions made in the bill are just proposals before the
Copyright This Day. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com)., source