The Federal Government has announced that it was preparing additional measures to mitigate the impact of the price drop on the Nigerian economy, this follows the continuous decline of the price of crude oil in the international market.
It also denied withdrawing the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework from the National Assembly, adding that the MTEF and the budget were with the lawmakers.
The Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, stated these at an event in Abuja.
Okonjo-Iweala said the country was facing a challenging time because of the developments in the global economy, adding that this had necessitated the need for additional austerity measures.
The minister did not provide details of the additional measures being planned.
She had during a public presentation of the 2015 budget proposal listed the stoppage of the purchase of new furniture, and reduction in international travels and trainings by government officials by 50 per cent as some of the austerity measures to be taken this year to boost revenue.
Others are the implementation of the Stephen Orasanye committee’s report on the rationalisation of the civil service; and introduction of 10 per cent tax on private jets, three per cent surcharge on champagnes and one per cent property tax on mansions with value exceeding N300m.
Between December 17, 2014 when the budget proposal was submitted, with oil benchmark price pegged at $65 per barrel, and now, global oil prices have further crashed to around $46 per barrel.
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