The Federal Government is to spend the sum of N971 billion to subsidise the supply of petrol to Nigerians in 2015, an indication that the administration has no plan to do away with subsidising petrol.

 

In the same vein, the government plans to give out a total of N260 million to the Subsidy Reinvestment Programme, SURE-P, for intervention in various development agencies.

 

This is contained in the 2015-2017 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy paper, which President Goodluck Jonathan sent to the National Assembly for approval as the basis for the 2015 budget.

 

According to the document, which Vanguard obtained Thursdayt, the government expects to receive fabulous revenue of N7.164 from oil and gas while the sum of N3.2 billion from non-oil revenue sources within the year.

 

Overall, the administration is expecting N11.1 billion as total federally collectible revenue for 2015, as against the projection of N10.894 for the current year.

 

Of its oil revenue, according to Jonathan, the sum of N858.59 billion will be spent as its contribution to the cost of oil production while N209 billion will go to National Domestic gas development and N78 billion set aside for Gas infrastructure development.

 

In the letter he addressed to the leadership of the National Assembly, Jonathan admitted that the oil sector was not witnessing new investments due to uncertainty occasioned on the non-passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB.

 

Jonathan explained that the oil benchmark of $78 pb was predicated on the projected balance between increasing global supply resulting from rising oil and unconventional oil production, and production disruptions that may might result from geopolitical risks.

 

The President said: "Our proposal is also driven by the need to be cautious in our revenue projections given the volatile nature of oil prices and the need to rebuild our fiscal buffers, which have been very useful in periods of revenue shocks".

 

Source : ALL AFRICA