A report by the Joint Committees of the National Assembly on Finance and Appropriation which was submitted on the floor of the Senate Thursday has recommended an upward review of the oil benchmark price from $74 per barrel to $76.5 per barrel in the 2014 budget as contained in the Medium Term Economic Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF and FSP) 2014-2016, and also described the implementation of the 2013 budget as poor. The report also frowned at the continuous building up of the nations foreign reserves above the internationally recognised standards of three months at the expense of the provision of critical infrastructure whose multiplier effect on GDP would boost national development. The Ahmed Makarfi committee further called on government to take drastic measure at curtailing the ongoing crude oil theft in the Niger Delta. Oil theft came into prominence in 2012 with a daily loss of about 150,000bpd. By July 2013, the loss had risen to about 400,000bpd. Government needs to take some drastic steps to halt this development.
Posted on: Fri, 08 Nov 2013 13:40:58 +0000