Budget: N’Assembly adopts $53 as oil benchmark

Budget: N’Assembly adopts $53 as oil benchmark

The Senate and the House of Representatives have settled for $53 as the crude
oil benchmark price for the 2015 budget.
Investigations by our correspondent on Wednesday showed that the Conference
Committee of the two chambers had agreed on the figure ahead of today’s
(Thursday) anticipated passage of the N4.3tn budget by the National Assembly.
The committee, which concluded its meeting on Wednesday, also slashed the
budget of the National Assembly by N30bn. This means a cut in the original figure
of N150bn to N120bn.
The two chambers of the National Assembly had earlier opted for separate oil
benchmark figures before the reconciliation.
While the Senate settled for $52, the House of Representatives recommended
$54. However, both chambers adopted $53 as the final figure after harmonisation.
A senior National Assembly official, who was part of the meeting, confided in our
correspondent that N190 was also agreed as the exchange rate of the naira to
the United States dollar.
The source said, “These are far-reaching decisions, which will serve the country’s
interest within the present circumstances. As a legislature, we have also cut our
own budget down to N120bn from the N150bn it has been for some years now.
“Again, on the omnibus Service Wide Vote, we have agreed that it should be
scrapped from the budget.”
The Chairman, House Committee on Appropriations, Mr. John Enoh, and his
counterpart in charge of Finance, Mr. Abdulmumin Jibrin, could not be reached for
comments before filing this report.