House Blames 2013 Budget Delay on NNPC

The House of Representatives has said that Nigerians should blame the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) for any delay in the passing of the corporation’s 2013 budget. This was disclosed by the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Finance, Hon. Abdulmumni Jibrin after the meeting of 60 revenue generating agencies.

According to him “NNPC has projected an oil production of 2.5 million barrels of oil per day. There is the need for NNPC to appear before the House Committee to explain how it intends to produce 2.5 million barrel of crude per day. We want to know the revenue expected from gas and the status of the Joint Ventures and other projections by the NNPC. Other revenue generating agencies like the Federal Inland Revenue Services, the Customs Service and the Department of the Petroleum Resources (DPR) have appeared before the House Committee on Finance, but the NNPC is yet to respond despite several invitations to it”.

On the benchmark to be used on the budget, since the Senate has benchmarked the budget on $78 and the House of Representatives on $80, the Chairman of the House Committee on Finance said, “since there was a disagreement on the benchmark to be adopted, the matter has been referred to the National Assembly Conference on Finance and the leadership of the two houses of the National Assembly. We expect them to resolve the matter based on the legislative procedures.”