Budget: Jonathan to meet Mark, Tambuwal

[DT]

     President Goodluck Jonathan has not signed the 2012 budget into law due to some areas of discrepancy with the National Assembly, Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said yesterday.

Briefing State House correspondents after a meeting of the National Economic Management Team, Okonjo-Iweala said the executive arm is still studying details of the budget passed by the National Assembly three weeks ago. She said the president will meet with leadership of the National Assembly tomorrow to iron out areas of differences in the budget estimates sent by the president and the one passed by the legislature.

According to the minister "what we are doing now is that the National Assembly just gave us the budget back about few days ago and of course when they pass the budget, we have to look at the details because it is not always the same as the budget Mr. President passed to the House.

"So, we are doing that work, we are looking at the details. After looking at the details, we will have a meeting with the leadership of the National Assembly on Thursday to make sure that we reconcile and understand all the changes that may have been made and after that, we will be ready to move on to the next step. That is where we are, doing the normal work."


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Daily Trust