President Goodluck Jonathan has again, put off the 2014 budget presentation to the Joint Session of the National Assembly scheduled to hold Tuesday, November 19, 2013.
He was earlier billed to present the budget on Tuesday, November 12, 2013, but had to request for postponement following the inability of the Senate to approve the 2014-2016 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP).
The President had earlier forwarded the MTEF/FSP, an important element for annual budget planning to the Senate for approval.
While adopting the MFET/FSP last week Wednesday, the Senate approved $76.50 per barrel as benchmark price of crude oil for the purpose of the 2014 budget, as against the $74 proposed in the paper by the President.
The increase by $2.50 per barrel is said not to have gone down well with the President and when it was glaring that the Senate was not ready to shift ground, he decided to put off the presentation pending when compromise could be reached.
Also, the Upper Chamber approved an average exchange rate of N160 to 1 dollar for the next three years, as well as crude oil production of 2,3883mbpd, 2,5007mbpd and 2,5497mbpd for 2014, 2015 and 2016 respectively.
