FG slashes 2015 budget by N357bn

Co o rd i na t i n g Minister for the Economy and Finance Minis­ter, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala yesterday presented esti­mates of the N4.357 tril­lion 2015 budget to the Senate with a cut of N357 billion.

On November 18, Presi­dent Goodluck Jonathan proposed N4.724 trillion budget in the 2015-2017 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) he presented to the National Assembly.
The minister, however, gave kudos to the Federal Government for reducing inflation in the country from 8.1 to 7.9 per cent.
Okonjo-Iweala told news­men shortly after laying the budget in the Senate chamber that government aimed to di­versify the economy in 2015 with attention on tax revenue.
“We have submitted the 2015 budget (and) the high­lights are: the benchmark price for oil of $65; Produc­tion figure of 2.27m bpd; we have estimated a GDP growth based on the circum­stances of the country, which will be about 5.5 per cent, this is down from the 6.35 per cent we had earlier from the National Bureau of Statistics which is still one of the best growth rate in the world.
“The budget seeks to pro­tect the average Nigerian because the key is that it fo­cuses on the diversification of the economy and it has been working because food prices have not risen in spite of the depreciation of the naira.
“If you check all around the markets, you will observe that the average Nigerian is still enjoying stable food prices. In some places like Enugu, the price of gari has even fallen. Inflation rate as estimated by the National Bureau of Statistics has fallen from 8.1 to 7.9 per cent.
“This budget really focus­es on moving us to diversify economy and raise non-oil revenue. We have made up for the fall of $13 per bar­rel, from $17 to $65, by rais­ing non-oil revenue through various types of taxes and policies. The surcharge on luxury goods is there, plus additional tax efforts to close leakages in revenue.”
Back in the chamber, Sen­ate President, David Mark, announced that Senate would resume on January 13, 2015 and proceed with debate on the budget estimates. He also implored the relevant com­mittees to start work on the document.