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No rift over passage of 2009 budget — Babalola

MINISTER of State for Finance, Mr. Remi Babalola has expressed confidence that the passage of the 2009 budget soon to be presented to the National Assembly would be problem free.
Babalola who spoke with journalists in Abuja disclosed that the budget would be based on a price benchmark of $62.5 per barrel.

"There would be no rancour between the executive and the legislature in over the budget this time around"
Babalola added that in working out the budget, the Federal Ministry of Finance and Budget Office of the Federation is projecting a daily crude production of 2.3 million barrels of production per day.
The 2008 budget was based on projected production of 2.45 million bpd at a benchmark price of $59 per barrel. He revealed that all necessary consultations were made with the lawmakers especially the Finance and Appropriation committees in arriving at a reasonable and workable figure during the preparatory stages of the budget.

Nigerians he stated, would applaud the budget once it is made public as President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua is determined to touch the lives of every Nigerian positively with the budget.

Although he did not give further details, our correspondent gathered from a source close to the Budget Office that priority areas of the budget would include power, transportation, education and job creation and agriculture.
Nigeria started a process of crude oil benchmarking for its budgetting since 2004 to forestall the perrennial boom and burst cycle as a result of vagaries in crude oil market.

However, a National Assembly source insisted that Nigerians should not expect that the 2009 budget would be passed as submitted by Yar'Adua whenever he decides to bring the proposal to them.

"We are not a rubber stamp. Even if we meet with the Ministry of Finance and Budget Office people for 50 times, we will still tinker with the figures", a member of one of the committees told our correspondent.
But Babalola said that while the executive is not contending with the prerogative of legislators to perform their appropriation functions, it would be good not to tinker with the fundame3ntal variables.

He explained that technocrats went to great length in arriving at scientifically tested figures and so, any attempt to amend the fundamental figures could hamper the whole budget projections.

He gave the assurance that all the necessary considerations were done before the figures of production and sale were arrived at.

Our correspondent was unable to extract information on when Yar'Adua is likely to present the proposals to NASS especially in view of the pending cabinet reshuffle