The Federal Government has introduced some austerity measures and scaled down the crude oil bench mark for the 2015 Appropriation Bill.

The Minister of Finance and the Co-ordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, announced this   Abuja while addressing journalists on the Federal Government’s response to the crisis in Abuja on Sunday.

She said the measures was necessary help to maintain economic stability, boost non-oil revenues further, plug loopholes and waste, as well as cut unnecessary expenditures in order to cope with the situation.

She said, “Every country that is well managed doesn’t just sit and allow a situation to happen to them. If they are well managed, they prepare the right set of policies to deal with the situation.

“Those days when we used to be like that in the ‘80s and 90s are over. In the ‘80s, when we had shocks, we didn’t take measures by ourselves to adjust. We waited for others to come and tell us how to adjust. But now we have competent teams and our job is not to sit and wait, but, to craft a set of policies and that will help us address these shocks.

“We are not talking about (cutting) salaries and benefits. We are talking of trainings and travels and these will be only for critical and essential items which will be pre-approved by the Head of Service and the Director-General of the   Budget Office and then if someone invites you for overseas course, you can go provided they pay for your training and your stay and you have to furnish evidence that they are paying before you will be allowed.

“The purpose of this is to tell you what we are doing and this team is calm and will be effective and we are working with the monetary policy authorities and together we will manage the economy in a transparent manner so that people need not have any fear.”

Dr. Okonjo-Iweala assured, however, that the federal government would continue to fund infrastructure, job creation, agriculture and human capital development, especially the health and education sectors, as part of the Goodluck Jonathan administration’s determination to strengthen the economy to positively affect the poor.

“To show how serious government is about job creation, President Goodluck Jonathan”, she disclosed, “will tomorrow, (today) November 17 launch the 4th edition of YouWin to support another 1,500 entrepreneurs along with a private equity fund for entrepreneurs.

“Our strategy is to continue to strengthen the sectors that drive growth such as infrastructure, agriculture and housing while reducing waste with a renewed focus on prudence.”

According to her, the policy was scenario-based and that additional measures would be introduced if oil prices declined further.

The minister said that the basket of measures with growth which has remained above six per cent, reassure investors and keep the economy on a stable course through the crisis.

Some of the austerity measures put in place to Curtail wastage includes cancelling of all foreign travels by civil servants unless for purposes that could be fully defended as absolutely necessary. In addition, foreign training programmes would be stopped and all trainings done in-country. The minister also spoke on the report of Steven Oronsanye committee, which was set up by government to prune down ministries and agencies. The committee had recommended that some of the agencies should be merged.

“We found that a lot of these agencies are underpinned by law and we discussed with the National Assembly and they are willing to look at how their laws can be repealed. So this is also part of our medium term measures,”

Another means to lessen the fall in oil revenue was to significantly increase non-oil revenue in the country, as she announced an aggressive tax administration in which, private jets, yachts, Champagne and a list of others to be announced would be taxed.

The minister said that the idea of Luxury Goods Tax was not to stop wealthy members of the Nigerian public from enjoying their wealth but to create an avenue for them to share with those at the lower levels of the ladder.

Okonjo-Iweala dismissed suggestions of printing Naira notes just to keep spending, as according to her, that would be the worst that could happen to an economy, especially among the poor, adding , “Spiral inflation is the worst enemy of the poor.

“Printing money without adequate revenue support will lead to serious consequences for the country. It will spur inflation as the experiences of Germany in the early part of the last century and more recently, Argentina and Zimbabwe demonstrate. This prescription will victimize the poor and middle class that it is supposedly protecting,”