A joint committee of the Senate and the Federal House of representatives on Tuesday adopted $79 per barrel as benchmark for crude oil in the 2013 fiscal year.
The 10-man committee put the benchmark at $79 instead of the $75 proposed by the President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2013 budget presented to a joint session of the National Assembly.
“After an extensive deliberation and consultation by the Conference Committee, the benchmark price of $79 per barrel was recommended,” committee said in a statement.
“The additional funds arising from the $4 increase will be substantially used to reduce domestic borrowing and deficit, as well as funding critical infrastructure.”
The committee similarly reached a unanimous decision to retain crude oil production levels at 2.526mbpd 2013, 2.611mbpd 2014 and 2.648mbpd 2015, and increase revenue target of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) for 2013.
It also decided that government should make quick efforts to review all laws allowing its agencies to expand their revenue with little or no operating surpluses, that government should increase funding for frontier exploration services in order to bolster the country’s crude oil resources, and that government and its agencies must comply fully with the Fiscal Responsibility Act.
In addition, the committee emphasised the need to pay more attention to the plight of people in the Niger Delta region in order to guarantee steady production of crude oil.
It further recommended that the use of Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS), which began recently, should extend to all MDAs so as to effectively reduce wage bill to achieve the final objective of cutting down on recurrent expenditure.
