The National Assembly has increased the total expenditure of the Federal Government in the 2020 budget from N10.002 trillion to N10.729 trillion.
The National Assembly also increased the revenue target of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) from N942.6 billion to N1.5 trillion in the 2020 budget as a result of the performance of Service in last nine months with three months still outstanding.
The approval followed the adoption of reports of both Senate and House of Representatives Joint Committees on Finance on the 2020-2022 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP).
This is as President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to present the 2020 budget to the National Assembly on Tuesday next week.
Considering the report laid on the floors of both chambers by the chairmen of finance committees, James Faleke (House) and Solomon Adeola (Senate), the proposal of 2.18mbpd as daily production output and $57/barrel as crude oil benchmark price for the fiscal year 2020 was adopted.
The report indicated that the NCS revenue as at September stood at N1 trillion against the budget figure of N969.8 billion for the year 2019 and commended the NCS for exceeding the targeted revenue despite the global economic challenges and closure of the Nigerian borders.
It recommended that the sum of N557.4 billion from the revenue increment of NCS be used to reduce borrowing by N200 billion and increase capital expenditure, thereby decreasing the size of the budget deficit from N1.7 trillion to N1.5 trillion and also increase the total capital available to MDAs by N857 billion, from N1.01 trillion to N1.367 trillion.
“The exchange rate of N305/$ should be maintained for economic stability, while more work should be done by the Honourable Minister of Finance and all economic advisers and her team on improving the economic growth by increasing the GDP and reducing the inflation rate to a single digit,” the report said.
It said the saving on income accruing from the increase of the benchmark amounting to N172 billion which represents the Federal Government portion of the $2 added to the benchmark should be used to pay salaries and emolument of the proposed 30,000 new employees. It called for “proper investigation” to be “carried out on the e-collection stamp duties domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria for the past years so as to show probity and accountability and of course increase the revenue base of the country”.
The report asked that “immediate amendment of Act of the National Assembly on Production Sharing Contracts (PSC) with IOCs and proper investigation be carried out on NNPC so as to ascertain the actual cost associated with the Joint Venture agreements” and that budget of “more government-owned enterprises “be added to the nation‘s budget to ensure proper checks and balances among all Federal Government agencies”. It said the Debt Management Office (DMO) should put more efforts and strategies in managing the foreign and local debts.
“The National Assembly should expedite action on the passage of the finance bill which will be brought along with the national budget into law for easy implementation of the 2020 budget, most especially in the area of VAT,” it said.
The report called for “urgent review/amendment of the FRA Act and the various laws of the revenue-generating agencies to align with current realities; and earmarking 1 percent of the Consolidated Revenue Fund to finance the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund to be classified as Statutory Transfer”.
Briefing National Assembly correspondents on Thursday, Adedayo Adeyeye, Senate spokesperson, said President Buhari would present the Appropriation Bill to NASS by 2pm on Tuesday and further assured that the budget would be passed before the end of the year.
“I can confirm and announce to you that the President will on Tuesday next week present the budget to National Assembly by 2pm,” Adeyeye said. “You can see that NASS is making sure that the Bill is given expeditious treatment.”
JAMES KWEN & SOLOMON AYADO, Abuja
