The House of Representatives on Wednesday constituted a six-member committee to meet in conference with the Senate to resolve the differences over the crude oil benchmark for the 2014 budget.
Both chambers had passed different oil benchmark prices when they considered the 2014-2016 Medium Term Expenditure Framework.
While the Senate passed $76.5 as the benchmark, the House approved $79.
President Goodluck Jonathan initially proposed $74.
On Tuesday last week, Jonathan postponed the presentation of the estimates of the budget to the National Assembly on the grounds that the chambers had yet to agree on a unified benchmark.
The PUNCH had reported exclusively on Tuesday that the House would name the MTEF committee on Wednesday.
The Speaker, Mr. Aminu Tambuwal, who announced the committee in Abuja, said it would be chaired by the Chairman, House Committee on Finance, Mr. Abdulmumini Jibrin.
The Chairman, Committee on Aids/Loans/Debt Management, Mr. Adeyinka Ajayi, and four others are members of the committee.
The Senate had named its own committee on Wednesday last week, awaiting that of the House.
The two sides will meet to arrive on the benchmark for the budget before Jonathan will fix another date to present the estimates.
In a separate resolution, the House directed its Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) to investigate how much funds the Federal Government spent as subsidy on kerosene from 2010 to date.
The sponsor of a motion on the matter, Mr. Adeyinka Ajayi, had said the investigation was necessary against the backdrop of information available to the House indicating that government spent N634bn as subsidy on kerosene between 2010 and 2012.
Punch
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