‘FG Will Not Review Budget Benchmark Now’

‘FG Will Not Review Budget Benchmark Now’

The federal government has declared that it will not review the 2015 Budget benchmark as volatility continues to hallmark the prices of the commodity in the global market.

Oil prices have continued a journey south from over $100 per barrel from the middle of June last year to below $50 per barrel currently.

The precipitous fall had resulted in the reversal of the initial Medium Term Expenditure Framework MTEF) of $78
  submitted to the National Assembly in September to $73 .

As the slide continued, the federal government was forced to further bring down the benchmark when the 2015 budget estimates were laid before the National Assembly early December.

In a statement Tuesday, the Federal Ministry of Finance said: “We are not reviewing the Budget Benchmark price at the moment. The price of oil is still quite volatile and we do not know how it will bottom out.

“We are taking a scenario-based approach in handling the 2015 Budget. That means that for various levels of oil price, we have additional measures both on the revenue and expenditure side, which will kick in when it bottoms out.