Senate passes revised Medium Term Expenditure Framework ahead of 2022 budget presentation

The Senate on Wednesday approved President Muhammadu Buhari’s revised 2022-2024 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP).

The revised document was received and referred to the Committee on Finance on Oct. 5 for speedy consideration ahead of Oct. 7 budget presentation to the National Assembly by President Buhari.

The approval of the revised MTEF and FST at plenary on Wednesday followed the consideration of a report by the Committee on Finance.

The Senate in its recommendation approved the aggregate expenditure of N16.39 trillion from the previous N13.98 trillion for the year 2022.

It also approved the retained revenue of N10.3 trillion and N635.4 billion fiscal deficits.

It commended the Budget Office of the Federation and the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning for insisting that MDAs submit their revenue profile as premise for being captured in the 2022 budget proposal.

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Chairman of the committee, Sen. Olamilekan Adeola, (APC-Lagos) in his presentation, said that gross revenue projection was decreased by N341.57 billion, from N8.870 trillion to N8.528 trillion.

According to him, deductions for Federally-funded upstream projects costs and 13 per cent derivation was slashed by N335.3 billion and N810.25 million, respectively.

He said that while net oil and gas revenue projection declined by N5.42 billion from N6.540 trillion to N6.535 trillion, non-oil taxes remained unchanged.

He explained that the Federal Government’s retained revenue was projected to increase by N1.773 trillion, from N8.36 trillion to N10.13 trillion.

Adeola said that the new increase to Federal Government’s expenditure was N5.241 trillion.

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Buhari, had in a letter to the Senate dated Oct 4, explained that the revision was necessitated by the need to reflect the new fiscal terms in the Petroleum Industry Act, 2021 and other critical expenditures in the 2022 budget.

According to Buhari, the underlying drivers of the 2022 fiscal projections, such as oil price benchmark, oil production volume, exchange rate, GDP growth, and inflation rate reflect emergent realities.

They also reflected that the country’s macroeconomic outlook remained unchanged as in the previously approved 2022-2024 MTEF/FSP, he stated. (NAN)