The Senate pegged the crude oil benchmark price at $73 per barrel and exchange rate at N700/$1
The Senate has approved the 2024-2026 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) ahead of the presentation of the 2024 Budget by President Bola Tinubu.
This is as it approved a special intervention (recurrent) of N200 billion, a special intervention (capital) of N7 billion, and an aggregated expenditure of N26 trillion.
Other parameters considered and approved are, Daily Crude Oil Production: 1.78mbpd; Oil Benchmark Price: $73; Exchange Rate: N700/$1; Borrowing and Statutory Transfer: N1.3 trillion; Budget Deficit: N9 trillion; Recurrent Expenditure: N10.2 trillion; Revenue: N9 trillion; Debt Service: N8.2 trillion; Sinking Fund: N243.6 billion, and Pension and Gratuity: 1.27 trillion.
The approvals followed the consideration of the Senate Joint Committee on Finance, Appropriations, National Planning and Economic Affairs, and Local and Foreign Debts on the 2024-2026 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP) on Wednesday
The Upper Chamber further approved the ban of all imported items locally produced, tax waivers that are not directly linked to non-governmental/non-profit organisations should not be granted, and investigations be launched into all tax waivers from 2015 to date by the relevant committees of the Senate.
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Presenting the report, the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Musa Sani (APC, Niger East) noted that a significant number of the Federal Government’s revenue-generating agencies engaged in arbitrary, frivolous, and extra-budgetary expenditure and recommended that a review of the laws of all revenue-generating agencies be carried out.
To improve the agencies’ capacity to enforce fiscal responsibility and penalise misbehaving corporations, he suggested that the National Assembly start the process of amending the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA, 2007).
The Senate, who recommended that the NIPOST subsidiaries be shut down and deregistered right away because they are irregular and illegal, noted that part of the recommendation is to look into the release of 10 billion naira released by the Ministry of Finance for the proposed NIPOST restructuring and recapitalization, and the funds fully recovered if established, to be injudiciously utilized by the relevant committee of the Assembly charged with the responsibility of fiscal prudence.
Additionally, it recommended that the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) work towards lowering its production and operating costs in order to increase available government revenue.
Further, it recommended that the Federal Government Agencies use ICT in the collection of all revenues by MDAs, including stamp duty collection activities.
