Finance

Analysts Fault 2021 Budget Estimates Benchmarks

As President Muhammadu Buhari prepares to lay before the National Assembly this week, the N13.09 trillion 2021 Appropriation Bill that was proposed last week by the Federal Executive Council (FEC), some analysts have faulted some of the assumptions on which the proposed spending plan was predicated upon.

Speaking in separate interviews with THISDAY, they argued that some of the assumptions did not take into consideration the present reality.

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, had said the proposed budget has an N2.083 trillion capital expenditure estimate.

According to her, the budget proposal expected to be presented to the National Assembly this week is predicated on N379/$ exchange rate, oil benchmark of $40 per barrel, oil production volume of 1.86 million per day, including 400,000 condensate, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of three per cent and 11.95 per cent inflation rate.

The minister, who said the budget, would run on N4.48 trillion deficits, put the revenue target in the fiscal year at N7.9 trillion.

But the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Financial Derivatives Company Limited, Mr. Bismarck Rewane, faulted the benchmark oil price, saying based on current crude oil price, a $40 barrel per day projection was too optimistic.

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