Jonathan To Present 2013 Budget Oct. 4

FG Pays Additional N56.755B To MarketersPRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan will on Thursday, October 4, present the 2013 Federal Government spending plan to the National Assembly, the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. (Mrs.) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has said.Speaking with newsmen in Abuja yesterday, Okonjo-Iweala said the key assumptions of the 2013 Budget are: Crude oil production of 2.48 million barrels per day; Crude oil price of $75 per barrel and GDP growth rate of 6.85 per cent.The cheery information comes even as the Finance Minister disclosed that the 2012 Budget, which the National Assembly has been bickering over its implementation, has attained 45.2 per cent of actual execution from April this year when the Budget execution began.She said a total of N710.4 billion has so far been disbursed for the first three quarters of the year. Out of this amount, she revealed that the sum of N553.2 billion, representing 58 per cent of the released sumhas been cash-backed, while the sum of N320.9 billion, representing 45.2 per cent of the cash-backed releases has been drawn down by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) for execution of projects. The sum of N1.3 trillion was appropriated as Capital Votes for the 2012 Plan.Already, the draft copy of the 2013 Budget is ready for presentation to the President for review and approval before its presentation to the National Assembly in October.According to investigations by The Guardian, the budget would focus on improving aggregate revenue receipts, optimizing expenditure and keeping the fiscal deficit at a reasonable level.'In the same vein, the Government is putting in place for the first time, a strong strategy for managing domestic debt. The first part of this strategy is to ensure a decline in fiscal deficit and domestic borrowing from 2.85 per cent and N744.44 billion in 2012 to 2.17 per cent and N727.19 billion in 2013 respectively with further decline up to 2015. The second part is the creation of a sinking fund to accumulate money for paying off bonds,' a source at the Budget Office of the Federation said yesterday.The Finance Minister however expressed the hope that the National Assembly would cooperate with the Executive to expeditiously pass the budget to enable early implementation from January next year.Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry has announced the additional payment of N56.755 billion to some 14 oil marketers who have been cleared by the Presidential Committee on the verification of claims.Among those paid include Total Nig Plc; MRS Oil Nigeria Plc; OANDO Plc; Integrated Oil and Gas Ltd; NIPCO; Folawiyo Energy Ltd; Forte Oil Plc, Bovas and Company and Ibafon Oil Ltd, among others.
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