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Nigeria: Dispute over gov’t spending delays Goodluck Jonathan budget
The House of Representatives and the Senate have both said they want a higher benchmark oil price assumption in the budget to free up more money for spending.
An internal Senate Committee report on the preliminary budget plan obtained by reporters on Tuesday is scathing about what it says is a lack of progress on infrastructure projects.
“The nation has not moved from the old practice of heavy recurrent and light capital spending,” it said, complaining about the “the alarming rate of uncompleted projects.”
“If these issues are not effectively looked into or controlled, the economic and infrastructural development aspirations of the nation will remain a mirage.”
In the budget framework, Ngozi allocated outgoings of NGN4.5 trillion (US$28.27 billion) for 2014, against NGN5 trillion (US$31.41 billion) in 2013, but lawmakers usually raise spending and ask the executive to cover costs with improved revenue collection.
Budget disagreements often center around the oil benchmark price, over which Africa’s biggest crude exporter saves revenues from oil sales into the excess crude account.
In the 2014 budget plan document, the finance ministry set the oil benchmark price US$74 a barrel.
