BUDGET ; WE WILL COVER THE SHORTFALL THROUGH TAXES - FG

Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said on Wednesday that the Federal Government will diversify the economy next year by shifting from the oil sector to aggressive revenue generation through taxes.

Okonjo-Iweala stated this during an interview with journalists shortly after she laid the 2015 budget estimates before the two chambers of the National Assembly.
She explained that the 2015 budget sought to protect the average Nigerian because it was packaged to focuses on the diversification of the economy.
She expressed optimism that the strategy would work because food prices had not risen in spite of the depreciation of the Naira.
The minister said, “If you check all around the markets, you will observe that the average Nigerian is still enjoying stable food prices. In some places like Enugu, the price of Gaari has even fallen.
“Inflation rate as estimated by the National Bureau of Statistics has fallen from 8.1 to 7.9 percent. This budget really focuses on moving us to diversify economy and raise non oil revenue.
“We have made up for the fall of $13 per barrel, by raising non oil revenue through various types of taxes and policies. The surcharge on luxury goods is there, plus additional tax efforts to close leakages in revenue.”
She explained that the benchmark price for oil was fixed at $65 while the production figure was pegged at 2.27m barrel per day.
“We have estimated a GDP growth based on the circumstances of the country, which will be about 5.5 percent which comes down from the 6.35 percent we had earlier from the National Bureau of Statistics which is still one of the best growth rate in the World.” She added.
Meanwhile, the Senate President, David Mark, has pledged that the upper chamber would consider the appropriation bill within two days on resumption but urged the various committees to work on the document even while on vacation.
Also, Senators Phillip Aduda and Joshua Dariye, have assured members of the public that the various committees would expedite action on the passage of the 2015 budget despite the political activities in their various constituencies.
Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba, while moving the motion for the adjournment till January 13, 2015, said the idea was to enable senators participate effectively in the political activities ahead of next year general elections.