National assembly approves $53-per-barrel oil benchmark

The national assembly on Thursday approved an oil benchmark of $53 per barrel for the 2015 budget.

The approval of the new oil benchmark follows the presentation of the report of the conference committee on the 2015-2017 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) by Ahmed Makarfi (Kaduna north), chairman senate committee on finance.

The finance committees of the house of representatives and the senate had met on Wednesday to harmonise their positions on the MTEF and the 2015 budget.

The result of the meeting was the fixing of the oil benchmark at $53 per barrel against the senate earlier position of $52 per barrel and the house’s $54 per barrel.

However, the national assembly maintained the senate’s N190 to a dollar exchange rate for the 2015 budget.

The national assembly recommended that “statutory transfers be reduced from N411.85 billion to N368. 27 billion” and added that statutory allocation to it be increased from N115 billion to N120 billion.

It also recommended that “the cost of oil paid out by the federation be reduced by N200 billion for 2015, and these savings directed towards capital expenditure‎”.

Regarding the new oil benchmark, David Mark, senate president, pointed out that the conference committees had no right to adjust the benchmark against the rate of the senate and house.

He said that the committees should have adopted either the rate of the senate or the house.

Nevertheless, the senate approved the recommendations of the committees.