President Muhammadu Buhari will address a joint session of the National Assembly on Tuesday next week to present the N6.04 trillion 2016 budget.
This follows an executive communication from President Buhari and read on the floor by Senate president, Bukola Saraki at Wednesday’s plenary.
“I urge the National Assembly to grant me the slot of 10:00 hours on Tuesday, 22nd December 2015 to formally address a joint session of the National Assembly of the 2016 budget,” Buhari stated in his letter.
Also on Wednesday, the Senate approved the 2016, 2017 and 2018 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP).
This followed the adoption of the report of the Joint Committee on Finance, National Planning and Appropriations.
The upper chamber approved a crude oil benchmark price of $38 per barrel for the 2016 budget at an Exchange Rate of N197/$1 as well as daily crude oil production of 2.2 million barrels per day, as proposed by the President.
BusinessDay reports that the crude oil benchmark of $38 per barrel is the lowest price in recent times, as against $62 per barrel in 2011, $67 in 2012, $79 in 2013, $76 in 2014 and $53 per barrel in 2015.
Presenting the report, chairman of the joint committee, John Enoh, urged the National Assembly to ensure that the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) delivered on its promise of raising N4.5 trillion tax collection revenue in 2016, with a view to raising the tax collection closer to the tax/Gross Domestic Product ratio of the economy.
It also approved the N500 billion special interventions programme meant to protect the poor and most vulnerable by providing affordable and qualitative education, qualitative and affordable healthcare and improving overall living standard of Nigerians, including the conditional cash transfer, home grown school feeding programme, post-NYSC entrepreneurial development programme and micro credit loans.
The MTEF document made provision of N300 billion (recurrent) and N200 billion (capital) in 2016 for the implementation of the programmes.
To this end, the joint committee urged the relevant committees of the National Assembly to constantly oversight the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) responsible for implementing the programmes to avoid abuse.
Also, the report tasked the National Assembly to work closely with the Executive to consider an accelerated passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), particularly sections with implication on joint venture funding by Federal Government (JV Cash Calls).
Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, had revealed that the PIB would be split into sections for quicker passage.
The report projected total oil and gas revenue of N3,534 billion; total non-oil revenue of N5,720 billion; Federal Government expenditure of N6,077 billion; statutory transfers of N351,37 billion; aggregate capital expenditure N1,845 billion and inflation rate of -9.81 percent.
The document also revealed that the Federal Government will borrow N1,835 billion in 2016, while N1,361 is for debt servicing.
Although the Committee approved the N1.8trillion new borrowing plan for 2016, it however, recommended its reduction “to a manageable level” to avert future debt service challenges.
