Nigeria LNG says NDDC levy not applicable to it

Following a demon¬stration by youths purported to be affili¬ated to a body, Niger Delta Youth Stakeholders Forum, over Nigeria LNG’s (NLNG) alleged refusal to pay a 3 percent Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) levy, the company has come out to clarify that this levy is inapplicable to it.
In a statement signed by Kudo Eresia-Eke, gen¬eral manager, external rela¬tions, NLNG, the company said their position has “the backing of decisions of the entire spectrum of courts in Nigeria, culminating in a Supreme Court ruling deliv¬ered in October 2011.”
The statement further said that following an initial suit filed by the NDDC, the Federal High Court on July 11, 2007 delivered judge¬ment, stating that NLNG was not liable to pay the NDDC levy.
It said NDDC then pro¬ceeded to challenge the High Court ruling at the Court of Appeal. The appellate court also ruled in NLNG’s favour, it said. NDDC appealed fur¬ther to the Supreme Court, the apex court subsequently dismissed NDDC’s appeal, Eresia-Eke said in the state¬ment.
The statement said the basis of the judicial deter¬mination of these courts in favour of NLNG is that the company is not subject to the NDDC levy, taking into account the correct inter¬pretation of the provisions of the NDDC Act 2000.
Furthermore, NLNG said that when the representa¬tives of the demonstrators were invited into a meeting with NLNG management and presented with this fact, they claimed to be unaware of it and then immediately undertook to go back and inform the crowd of demon¬strators numbering about 40 which led to the protesters dispersing shortly after¬ ward.
While reiterating that the company will continue to conduct its businesses in full compliance with the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and applicable tax regulations, NLNG said that “as has been the case since inception, NLNG continues to champion compliance and meet all its applicable tax obligations including education tax, value added tax, personal income tax, withholding tax, tenement rates etc, as accruable to federal, state and local gov¬ernments.”
NLNG says its unique approach to corporate social responsibility is anchored on the key elements of partner¬ship and sustainability and its programmes fall into two broad categories, namely human capital and business as well as infrastructure development.
It said some 250,000 homes and businesses on Bonny Island benefit from uninterrupted electricity supply. The Bonny Voca¬tional Centre actively pro¬motes technical and entre¬preneurial skills training for hundreds of community beneficiaries. NLNG also initiated a one billion dollar Vendor Finance Scheme in 2013, which affords local businesses access to low cost finance to encourage local content development and enable growth. “More recently, NLNG also an¬nounced a $12 million Uni¬versity Support Programme to build or upgrade and equip engineering laborato¬ries in six universities across Nigeria’s geo-political zones to boost teaching and re-search”, the company added.
NLNG shareholders in¬clude the Federal Govern¬ment, represented by the Nigerian National Petro¬leum Corporation (NNPC) (49 percent); Shell Gas BV, SGBV (25.6 percent), Total LNG Nigeria Limited (15 per¬cent), and Eni International (10.4 per cent).