Ghana to review downwards oil revenue targets again

  

The Ministry of Finance has hinted it will consider going back to cabinet to review oil revenue targets for the second time this year.

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“One of the main areas where we’ve suffered some major impact is crude oil prices , just after we read the budget , we in March at a media briefing said that because of the falling crude prices we couldn’t use the 99 dollars per barrel which the petroleum revenue management act require that we use to continue to implement the budget . Then in the mid year review we revised the figure upwards, back then we used approximately 53 dollars instead of the 99. We revised it slightly upwards to about 57 in line with the IMF projection at the time, but within a month you will agree with me that the price has gone down again… as at yesterday it was at 45”, the minister of finance Seth Terkper stated at a press briefing to update Ghanaians on the current state of the economy following various developments on the international front.

According to Seth Terkper, the revised estimate of petroleum benchmark revenue for 2015 may not be achieved.

Government cut down oil revenue target as contained in the 2015 budget by 64% in March,2015 from the initial figure of 4.2 billion dollars to 1.5 billion dollars.

This followed the continuous slump in the price of crude on the world market currently selling around 40 dollars per barrel.

“We are going into the 2016 budget, I said in my introduction that the hearings are ongoing and so we will take the oil price trend into account to determine two things thus whether we will go back to cabinet and parliament to revise the last quarter figures or we will wait and rather look at the price trends , and factor whatever new price into the 2016  budget.’

He said the current situation will translate into a cut down in government expenditure.

‘That means the vigilance that we have been using to monitor the crude oil price and if necessary make the necessary adjustment in expenditure will continue”, he added.

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By:  Rabiu Alhassan/citifmonline.com/Ghana