Excess crude savings
above the budgeted
price of $25 per barrel have mounted to N327 billion, finance minister, Dr (Mrs) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has said.
Speaking at a news conf-erence in Abuja yesterday, the minister said consult-ations were currently going on between the federal and state governments on the best way to manage the fund in a sustainable way that will enhance public interest.
The minister said a key concern on the excess crude fund would be to set aside a proportion to cushion the economy from the negative effects of oil price volatility as well as financing infrastr-uctural projects.
“At the end of the day, the results of these consult-ations and negotiations will be captured in a fiscal respo-nsibility Bill presented to the National Assembly for de-bate and hopefully, pass-age,” the minister said.
She said the economy recorded an improvement in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), of 3.5 percent in 2002, rising to N392.76 billion just as the nominal oil sector GDP rose by 25 percent while non-oil GDP increased by 4 percent per annum.
The minister however said that inflation, which now stood at 17.8 percent, cont-inued to be a problem, and that the high rate was due mainly to the current high level of oil prices in the inter-national market as well as other cost-push factors.
Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala said a total of $3.1 billion and 30 million Swiss Francs which was an increase, was inve-sted in the nation’s economy in 2004 alone. The total revenue collection into the federation account in 2003, she said, stood at N2384.5199 billion compared to N1,502,984.1 billion collected in 2002. This, she explained, reflects an increase of N881.5358 billion or 58 percent.
She pointed out however, that the net federation acc-ount receipts after deduc-tions for the first line charges of N563.5099 million or 23.6 percent stood at N1,821.01 billion of the N821.009 distri-buted from the federation account in 2003, a total of N917.104 billion went to the federal government, N419.8450 billion to the states and FCT and N346.8659 billion to the local gover-nment councils, including area councils of the FCT while N137.1946 billion was paid into the derivation account.
The minister said the nation’s external debt as at December 31, 2003 stood at $32.91681 billion as against $30.99187 billion as at December 31, 2002. The debt stock she said, comprised $27.46992 billion or 83.45 percent owed the Paris Club, $3.04208 billion owed the London Club, $911.39 million, or 2.77 percent to promissory note holders while $51.63 million or 0.16 percent was owed the non-Paris Club creditors.
Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, also yesterday info-rmed the finance committee of the House of Represe-ntatives that the 2004 budget had been implemented to about 33 percent so far at the opening of a closed door interactive session with the finance committee during which both parties were exp-ected to fine tune arran-gements for a smooth passage of the 2005 budget to pave way for its complete implementation.
The minister said that one third of the N349.89 billion 2004 budget, equivalent to 33 percent, had been imple-mented, and described that as a good development for the country because imple-mentation started late in April, 2004.
With the progress recor-ded so far, she said, the fina-nce ministry was confident that the 2005 budget would be implemented to the letter because of early preparation, adding also that for the first time in a long time, the federal government would present a budget on January 1, in 2005.
Mrs Okonjo-Iweala said that the finance ministry was already working closely with the National Assembly and experts, as directed by President Obasanjo, to expedite work on budget 2005, and that the legislature and the executive would soon come to terms on the parameters for the budget.
The chairman of the Ho-use committee on finance, Hon. Farouk Lawan, said that reports available to the com-mittee indicated that the finance ministry has perfo-rmed well in the impleme-ntation of the 2004 budget, and that going by the min-ister’s promise, the 2005 budget would be presented to the National Assembly in September 2004.
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