• Total amount released now N1.01tn
• Okonjo-Iweala: Nigeria’s 2013 budget estimates may drop by $12bn
The federal government Sunday announced the release of a total of N160 billion for the fourth quarter of 2013 to further bolster the execution of capital projects captured in the 2013 budget.
The latest figure meant that a total of N1.01 trillion had so far been released for capital projects this year.
A statement by the Special Adviser to the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Mr. Paul Nwabuikwu, disclosed this said the federal government had previously released N400 billion for the first quarter, N200 billion for the second quarter and N250 billion for the third quarter.
A further breakdown of the amount released showed that N598.4 billion of the capital budget or 72.3 per cent had been utilised as at the end of the third quarter of 2013.
“A balance of N229.6 billion unspent by various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) remains at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The N160 billion released for the fourth quarter will bring total spendable balances to N450 billion till the end of the year.
“Like the previous months, salaries of workers in federal government ministries and agencies for October were paid before the 20th of the month according to a presidential directive for the convenience and comfort of staff,” the statement added.
Meanwhile, the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, at the weekend, indicated that revenue earned by the country this year may be as much as $12 billion short of budget estimates as crude oil theft and output disruptions persist in the Niger Delta region.
“The federal government will draw down its oil savings in the Excess Crude Account (ECA) to compensate for the drop in revenue to keep the budget deficit under control, Okonjo-Iweala said in an interview with Bloomberg in Abuja.
“With a 2013 budget based on a daily output of 2.53 million barrels and an oil price of $79 a barrel, the country expects revenue of almost $80 billion from exports.
“In the first half of the year, oil receipts amounted to $28.2 billion, more than $7 billion below the estimate, according to central bank figures.
“What is amazing now is that we have had this quantity of shock and we were able to weather it. You can say theft, but it’s still a quantity shock,” the finance minister said.
The revenue shortfall due to output disruptions would probably be between $6 billion and $12 billion, the Director General, Budget Office, Bright Okogwu, who sat on the interview with the finance minister, said.
The government saves the balance of oil revenue above the budgeted price in the ECA, which had a balance of just under $5 billion, down from about $9 billion at the beginning of the year, according to the minister.
“When there’s a breakage the impact is that the pipes are shut down, the effect is that 400,000 barrels are shut down,” Okonjo-Iweala said, adding that “the actual theft is like 70 to 80,000 barrels a day.”
The average price of Nigeria’s light, sweet crude has stayed above $100 a barrel this year.
The official selling price of Nigeria’s benchmark Qua Iboe crude for November loading was set at $3.50 a barrel more than dated Brent, the European benchmark, according to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
Source: Thisday
