2015 Budget Down By N304bn

There are strong indications that a lot of federal government ongoing capital projects may remain uncompleted, while new ones may not be awarded next year, consequent upon  the decision by the Federal government to slash the 2015 capital projects proposed expenditure by N581 billion.
Facts emerging from the Presidency has shown that the 2015 budget estimate by the federal government has  reduced further by N304 billion, as the international oil price continues on a downward trend, hence the government has pegged the oil benchmark for next year’s budget at $65 per barrel.
The National Assembly on resumption yesterday received a communication from  President Goodluck Jonathan seeking their permission to  present the 2015 budget, According to the letter,    the Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, is  to lay the budget estimates before both chambers of the National Assembly, Wednesday.
A breakdown of the new Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) for the 2015 budget indicates that capital expenditures, which was formerly N1.208 billion in the old MTEF submitted in September 20, is reduced to N627 billion in the recently reviewed MTEF, slashing N581 billion.
On the overall budget estimate for 2015, the federal government reduced the budget expenditure from N4.661 trillion to N4.357 trillion, leaving a slash of N304 in the current MTEF.
In the same vein, while the oil daily production remains 2.2782 barrels per day, the exchange rate in the new MTEF increased from N162 to N165, while oil benchmark came down from $73 to $65 per barrel.
The federal government also reduced subsidy payment on kerosene in 2015 from N193 billion in the old MTEF to N84 billion in the new proposed MTEF. According to the new MTEF, SURE-P Capital expenditure for 2015 came down from N184 billion to N102 billion, while MDAs capital expenditure proposal came down from N872 billion to N380 billion, and Capital expenditure in statutory transfer came up from N150 billion to N144 billion in the reviewed MTEF.
Meanwhile, the recurrent expenditures virtually remained unchanged, as the same figure of N2.622 trillion is maintained in both the old and reviewed MTEF, while the National Assembly budget of N150 billion remained unchanged.
President Goodluck Jonathan also hinted that the current N4.357 trillion 2015 budget proposal, which is based on the new MTEF, may further be reviewed downwards if the oil prices continues to precipitate beyond the current framework.
According to him, “there is no iron clad guarantee where oil are concerned due to numerous underlying global geo-political factors that are outside our control and unpredictable”.
He urged the lawmakers to expedite action on the   budget proposal to enable an early the implementation of the budget next year.

NnekaAmaechi-Nnadi, Abuja

Speaker of Rivers State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Otelemaba Amachree (left) conferring with Hon Austine Ngo at the sitting of the House, yesterday. Photo: Chris Monyanaga.