SAN FRANCISCO, October 29, (THEWILL) – It has been officially confirmed that President Goodluck Jonathan will be presenting the 2014 Appropriation Bill before a joint session of the National Assembly on Tuesday, November 12 .
The executive arm is proposing a N4, 497.115 trillion 2014 budget as contained in the 2014-2016 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF).
The president’s conveyance of his preparedness to present the budget was contained in a letter dated October 23 and addressed to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal.
The letter, which was read by the Deputy Speaker, Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, at yesterday’s plenary said: “I write to crave your kind indulgence to grant me the slot of 12:00 noon on Tuesday, November 12, 2013 to enable me formally address a joint session of the National Assembly on the 2014 Budget.
“While thanking the honourable members of the House of Representatives of the Federal Republic of Nigeria for the constancy of their support, please accept, Rt. Hon Speaker, the assurances of my highest consideration,” President Jonathan said.
It will be recalled that the Federal Government had, in the 2014-2016 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), and Fiscal Strategic Paper (FSP), submitted to the National Assembly, earlier proposed N4,497.115 trillion as aggregate expenditure for the 2014 federal budget estimates.
This amount is N492.133 million less than the 2013 budget figure of N4,987.243 trillion.
The cut in next year’s budget proposal is due to expected decline in government’s revenue, particularly from crude oil production where the country is currently facing challenges of crude oil theft, illegal bunkering and production shut-ins.
The Federal Government is also proposing oil benchmark price of $74 per barrel for the 2014 budget estimates, down from this year’s $79.
Similarly, crude oil production estimate has been lowered to 2.38883 million barrels per day, down from this year’s production benchmark of 2.526mbpd.
The MTEF and FSP provide the basis for the annual budget planning as required by the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007.
Meanwhile, the exchange rate of the Naira to U.S. dollar has been retained at N160, even as the nation’s quest to grow the economy through increased budgetary allocation to capital projects may be frustrated following the lowering of capital budgetary allocation to 26.22 per cent in the 2014 budget, down from 32 per cent as was the case in this year’s budget.
By Saint Mugaga, Abuja
