‘Why Buhari didn’t sign PIB’

A Presidency source has disclosed why the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) passed by the eighth Senate was not signed into law.

President Muhammadu Buhari, who is the Minister of Petroleum Resources, will be deeply involved in the consultations this time round to see to the passage of the bill before 2023, the source who pleaded for anonymity said.

It added that the Executive and the National Assembly were to consult widely on bill in order to avoid the pitfalls of the past.

The PIB, which has been in the works since 2008 when it was first introduced to the legislature, suffered setbacks in the sixth and seventh National Assembly.

The bill seeks to change the organisational structure and fiscal terms governing the industry.

The eighth National Assembly split the PIB into four parts — Petroleum Industry Governance Bill, Petroleum Industry Administration Bill, Petroleum Industry Fiscal Bill and Petroleum Host Community Bill — to fast-track its passage into law.

After its passage by both the Senate and the House of Representatives, the PIGB was transmitted to the President for assent in July last year to enable it to become law but it emerged in August that Buhari declined to assent to the bill.

Then presidential aide on National Assembly, Ita Enang, had earlier identified the provision of the PIGB permitting the Petroleum Regulatory Commission to retain as much as 10 per cent of the revenue generated as one of the reasons Buhari declined to assent to the bill.

SOURCE: thesunnewsonline