‘FG MAY NOT PAY SALARY BY OCTOBER’

The federal government has said that it may not be able to pay workers’ salary by October should the national assembly fails to amend the content of the 2013 appropriation budget.

Coordinating minister of the economy and minister of finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala stated this yesterday during an interview with the crew of Political Platform, a political programme in RayPower radio and monitored in Abuja yesterday.

The minister maintained that “it come to a point where some amendment has to be made and that’s why Mr president sent this amendment to the national assembly. I think we can continue a little longer and at some point we need the amendment to pass, because come September or October, we may not be able to pay salary.

“We have been talking with various committees and the leadership in a collegial way trying to see how we can fix this problem. But one specific example that is critical is the salary and between now and October, we will need about N32 billion,” said the minister.

Asked about the state of the current Nigerian economy, the finance minister was quick to dispel a reported story that the country is broke, asserting that Nigeria’s economy is strong but currently experiencing some cash flow hiccups.

“We have been very open about it. I always believe in telling Nigerians about what the situation is all about with regards to the budget, with regards to the economy. Nigerian economy is fundamentally strong but within a strong economy, you can experience a cash flow problem. Outside agents regard us as fundamentally strong. Now the issue is we are experiencing short term problem,” she said.

It could be recalled that President Goodluck Jonathan has re-submitted the 2013 budget to the national assembly for amendment with a reported slashing of about N56 billion to the earlier rejected budget amount by House of representatives last week.

Source: Daily Trust