Five months into the year, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the economy Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala; has cautioned on the 2013 budget warning that it is not implementable due to deductions made by the National Assembly.
Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said the budget isn’t implementable because the chunk of monies allocated to key sectors of the economy has been slashed by the lawmakers.
The Minister spoke to Channels TV from Cape Town, South Africa where she is attending the World Economic Forum on Africa.
According to her “as we speak it is difficult to pay salaries of civil servants because N32 billion allocated for payment of salaries has been removed.”
This is coming just as the House of Representative hinted on Thursday that it may turn down proposed amendments to the 2013 budget sent by President Goodluck Jonathan.
Briefing journalists in Abuja, chairman of the House Committee on media and publicity, Representative Zakari Mohammed explained that the amendment is the same as the initial budget forwarded to the National Assembly.
The 2013 Budget which was passed in December 2012 and signed into law by President Jonathan in February 2013, has remained a thorny issue between the National Assembly and the Presidency.
