Fuel Price May Increase, As Senate Removes Subsidy From Budget 2015

0
698
In-coming president
In-coming president

By Nuel Suji, Abuja.
Indication emerged Tuesday that fuel pump price may likely hit N130 by June with the withdrawal fuel subsidy from the 2015 budget passed by the senate.

The senate passed a total estimate of N4.493trillion budget for the year 2015 with a slight increase from N4.357trillion proposed by the executive in December last year.

Briefing newsmen after the passage of the bill, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Ahmad Maccido, explained that  the zero allocation for fuel subsidy should not be construed by Nigerians as total subsidy removal, saying, “for now, there is no budgetary provisions for fuel subsidy by the executive which it may however do later through supplementary budget proposal”.

He added that there is the high likelihood of supplementary proposal since the executive made provisions for Subsidy Re- Investment and Empowerment Progrjtamme ( Sure- P) upon which the National Assembly has appropriated N21.030billion  for 2015 fiscal year.

The budget which is based on critical assumptions of oil price bench mark of $53per barrel, 2.2782 million barrel of crude oil production per day and exchange rate of N190 to a U.S. Dollar, has N375, 616, 000, 00 billion earmarked for statutory transfers and N953,620, 000, 00 billions for Debt service.

Others are N2, 607, 132, 491, 708 trillion for recurrent expenditure, N556, 995, 465, 449billions for capital expenditure with a fiscal deficit of N1, 075.3trillion .

Breakdown of the budget as passed shows that the sum of N2,007,775,136,033 was approved for recurrent (non-debt) expenditure, Education gets the highest allocation of N392,242,784,654, followed by Defence/MOD/Army/Air Force/Navy with N338,797,219,431 and Police Formations and Commands with N303,822,224,611.

Health got N237,075,742,847; Interior, N153,330,022,460; Youth Development, N69,423,427,479; National Security Adviser, N62,226,771,999; Petroleum Resources, N58,274,429,975; Secretary to the Government of the Federation, N48,389,942,264; Foreign Affairs, N41,649,382,166, Agriculture and Rural Development, N31,869,020,717.

The sum of N26,590,103,366billion is for Science and Technology; N25,173,916,543 billion for Works; N23,682,420,241 billion for Information; N20,085,865,120 billion for the Presidency; N18,081,478,935 billion for Tourism, Culture and National Orientation; N15,559,334,341billion  for Environment; N10,941,859,480 billion for Trade and Investment while N10,592,048,381 is for Communication Technology.

From the N13,965,664,092 billion approved for the eight federal executive bodies, the sum of N5,293,800,054 is for National Population Commission; N1,935,767,344 for Code of Conduct Bureau; N493,656,088 for Code of Conduct Tribunal; N2,207,213,456 for Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission; N1,125,005,114 for Federal Civil Service Commission; N740,477,185 for Police Service Commission and N2,167,931,068 for Federal Character Commission.

From the sum of N231,058,494,343 billion approved for Service Wide Votes, the sum of N20.270 billion is for Zaman Lafiya; N22 billion for operations – Internal – for the Armed Forces; N9.6 billion for payment to Nigerian Army Quick Response Group, including arrears; N5 billion for payment of outsourced services.

Also, N2.3 billion is provided for entitlements of former presidents/heads of state and vice presidents/chiefs of general staff; N5.5 billion for Employees’ Compensation Act – Employees Compensation Fund; N17.5 billion for general election logistic support; N17,397,993,277 for contingency.

It also provides for N6 billion for country’s contribution to West African Examination Council (WAEC); N4.5 billion for assessed contribution to African Union and others; N5 billion for margin for increases in costs; N11 billion for external financial obligations; N3,099,600,000 for recurrent adjustment; N38,987,017,746 for public service wage adjustment for MDAs (including arrears of promotion and salary increases) while N11.755 billion is for improved remuneration package for Nigerian Police.