SENATE PASSES NDCC BILL
All gas processing companies operating in the Niger Delta will henceforth pay a total of three per cent of their annual budget to the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) as their statutory contribution to the regional interventionist agency.
This followed consideration and passage of the NDDC Act Amendment Bill by the upper chamber of the National Assembly. Chairman, Senate Committee on Niger Delta, Senator Peter Nwaobushi, (PDP Delta North), who sponsored the amendment, said the bill will improve the revenue and funding sources of the NDDC, to meet up with its financial challenges.
Nwaoboshi said that inadequate funding has been threatening to cripple the operations of the commission and undermine its capacity to deliver on the mandate.
“The main objective of the bill is to amend section 14 of the principal Act to improve the revenue and funding sources of the Niger Delta Development Commission to enable it meet financial challenges which are threatening to cripple the operations of the commission and undermine its statutory.
“Section 14 is amended to further impose a charge of three per cent on this total annual budget of gas processing companies operating in the Niger Delta area excluding the cost of feed gas” The amendment, Nwaoboshi said, was in consonance with the observations of the senators during the debate on the general principles of the bill. He disclosed that the committee also found out that, “it is necessary to review the provisions of this section involved in order to rid it of ambiguities
