The Federal Government has introduced strategic measures to avoid the impact of the global economic crises caused by the spread of Covid-19.
The Minister of Finance, Hajia Zainab Ahmad, stated this at the State House, Abuja, after the Federal Executive Council meeting. The Minister said the measures included the introduction of petrol price modulation mechanism to allow local pump price of the commodity to float in accordance with fluctuations of crude oil price in the international market. She said President Buhari had also approved the trimming of the size of the federally-funded upstream projects of the petroleum sector. She noted that the President had directed them to devise means of saving the situation in the event crude oil price fell to 30 dollars per barrel.
In that case, according to her, the government is looking at enhancing production to make sure that at the minimum, the 2.18 million barrels per day captured in the budget as production volume is realised and that the NNPC has directives to that effect.
Hajia Zainab Ahmad said they would adjust downwards the 1.5 trillion Naira Customs revenue captured in the budget, saying that they have anticipated that trade volumes would decline, which will have significant negative impact on their revenue generation.
The Finance Minister said President Buhari had approved slashing of capital expenditure budgeted by 20 percent across ministries, departments and agencies, and also a 25 percent cut of all government owned enterprises, including those in the national budget, and the ones outside it.
By these measures, she said they would expect that the operating surpluses accruing to the federation would increase, explaining that when their operational expenditure reduces, the operating surpluses that they remit to the treasury will also increase significantly.