SAN FRANCISCO, January 18, (THEWILL) –The Nigerian Senate on Wednesday settled for $44.5 per barrel as the oil benchmark price for the 2017 budget, up from the $42.5 per barrel proposed by the Executive in the 2017-2019 Medium Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF, and Fiscal Strategy Paper, FSP.
It however adopted the exchange rate of N305 to a dollar presented by the Executive, but called on the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to initiate measures that would close the gap between the official and parrallel markets.
The MTEF and FSP serve as parameters for the N7.298 trillion 2017 budget, which President Muhammadu Buhari laid before a joint session of the National Assembly on December 14.
The upper legislative chamber while considering the report on both documents from its joint committee on Finance, Appropriation and National Planning, agreed on the Executive-proposed oil output level of 2.2 million barrels per day.
“The joint committee recommends the adoption of the projected N5.122 trillion for non-oil revenue in 2017. In addition, revenue-generating agencies should intensify their revenue collection drive in order to boost non-oil components of the revenue.
“The joint committee recommends the adoption of N807.57 billion for federal government independent revenue for 2017. It further recommends the review of legal framework of relevant MDAs and Government owned enterprises.
“The joint committee recommends the adoption of 2017 borrowings but insists that the new borrowings should be on project-tied basis,” read part of the report.
He argued that the “Black market is about N500 (to one dollar). This will make Nigerian businessmen round-trip; N305 is not realistic.
“Recurrent expenditure is still better, 70 to 75 percent, and that has not changed. Nigeria will not develop that way; it should be reduced by 50 percent so that we can put more in capital projects.”
Disagreeing with the PDP lawmaker, the Senate Leader, Ahmed Lawan, held that the 2.2 million barrels per day is realistic, insisting that “the budget should reflect what is contained in the MTEF”.About the Author
