The
Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on Tuesday said President
Goodluck Jonathan had not signed into law the 2012 budget, which was
recently passed by the National Assembly, because of the need for the
Executive to scrutinise the document.
She said the scrutiny became necessary
because it was not always the same Appropriation Bill sent by the
President that the National Assembly passed.
Okonjo-Iweala spoke with State House
correspondents shortly after the meeting of the Economic Management Team
presided over by Jonathan at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
She said, “What we are doing now is that
the National Assembly just gave us the budget back about few days ago,
and of course, when they pass the budget, we have to look at the details
because it is not always the same as the budget Mr. President passed to
them.
“So, we are doing that work, we are
looking at the details. After looking at the details, we will have a
meeting with the leadership of the National Assembly on Thursday to make
sure that we reconcile and understand all the changes that may have
been made, and after that, we will be ready to move on to the next step.
That is where we are.”
Okonjo-Iweala identified the increase of
the oil benchmark price from $70 to $72 per barrel as one of the major
changes carried out by legislators on the budget.
She said the change was used to reduce
deficit and create additional fund for spending, which the government is
comfortable with.
The minister said, “We are still ending
up with fiscal deficit that is reasonable and under three per cent as
well as reduced debt, that is okay.
“But now, the details, most of the
specific MDAs and how the budget may have changed, that is the step we
are looking at now and that takes a little bit of time, but we must do
it because we will make sure we have a budget that can be implemented.
We are trying to speed up the work so that we will meet with the
leadership of the National Assembly on Thursday.”
Meanwhile, the Director-General, Budget
Office of the Federation, Dr. Bright Okogu, told journalists that the
implementation of the 2012 budget had begun though it had not been
signed into law.
Okogu said the law allowed that
implementation of a budget that had been submitted to the National
Assembly could start in as much as it was not more than 50 per cent of
the previous year’s budget.
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