TVC E, BUSINESS – The Nigerian Senate is proposing a bill to replace obsolete royalty laws in the petroleum industry so as to save the more than seven billion dollars Nigeria loses annually.
The bill is sponsored by Senator Theodore Orji and seeks to amend sections of the 1999 Constitution and the Petroleum Act which exempt oil companies that initially undertook oil exploration in Nigeria from paying taxes.
The bill also seeks to increase the royalties of the deep offshore production sharing contracts from twelve per cent to twenty per cent in arrears between 201 and 500 metres water depth.