Senate Committee on Finance said yesterday that it would begin legislative work on the 2021-2023 Medium Term Expenditure and Fiscal Strategy Paper, MTEF/FSP, on Wednesday, August 19.
President Muhammadu Buhari had, on July 20, forwarded the 2021-2023 MTEF/FSP for their consideration and approval to both chambers of the National Assembly.
The document included N12.66 trillion budget estimates for 2021 and an estimated N5.16 trillion budget deficit for the fiscal year.
Chairman Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Solomon Adeola (APC Lagos West) disclosed in a statement in Abuja that invitations hhd been sent to ministries, departments and agencies, MDAs, to be ready with their presentations on the documents.
Adeola, in the statement signed by his media aide, Kayode Odunaro, said the MDAs were to appear before the Senate joint Committee on Finance, and National Planning.
He noted that there was need to examine the rationale for pegging the price of crude oil at $40 per barrel and a projected crude oil production of 1.86 million barrels per day, mbpd, in the MTEF/FSP document.
“We are kick-starting the process on Wednesday with Government Owned Enterprises(GOEs) like NNPC, NCC, NPA, Custom Service, NIMASA, DPR and others followed by the Ministry of Finance and its agencies and subsequently all revenue generating agencies,” he said.
The lawmaker called on heads of MDAs to be prepared to defend their projections “as the Joint Committee intends to present the report to the Senate in plenary immediately on resumption from its ongoing vacation in tandem with the desire of the upper chamber to pass 2021 in December.”
Adeola insisted that there was need for thorough scrutiny of the MTEF/FSP document in view of the fluid nature of the world economy following the disruptive impact of COVID-19 pandemic and the vagaries of the international market for crude oil and its attendant effects on the nation’s sources of revenue.
“There is a need for all stakeholders to come together to critically study the fundamentals of the “new normal” forced on the global economy by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“With the instability witnessed in the price of crude oil at the international market and the sluggish world economy with some nations falling into recession, there is need to assess our situation critically and be realistic about our revenues sources for budgets going forward,” he said.
The MTEF/FSP documents which were accompanied with a letter read at plenary by the Senate President, Dr. Ahmad Lawan, wete referred to the joint committee for further legislative works.
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