The House of Representatives will on Monday, December, 4 this year,(2017) conduct public hearing on the 2018 budget estimates presented by President Muhammadu Buhari to the joint session of the National Assembly.
Yussuff Lasun, Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, who disclosed this during Tuesday’s plenary session, explained that the debate on the general principles of the N8.61 trillion budget estimates for 2018 fiscal year would commence on Tuesday, 28th November, 2017.
Lasun explained that the House would dedicate Wednesday, 21st and Thursday, 22nd November, 2017 to the consideration and subsequent approval of the 2018-2020 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP), earlier transmitted by the president.
The Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007 makes approval of the MTEF/FSP a prerequisite for the consideration and passage of the budget.
Lasun added that the debate would be concluded on Thursday, 30th November, 2017, ahead of the public hearing.
To this end, the Deputy Speaker urged all the lawmakers to get copies of the 2018 budget proposal presented by President Muhammadu Buhari to the joint session of the National Assembly, adding that: “members are to indicate the date they wish to contribute to the debate, as there is need for us to participate actively and that the Bill is given expeditious attention,’’ Lasun said.
As contained in the MTEF/FSP transmitted to the National Assembly, the sum of N6.1 trillion expected from oil sector while N5.5 trillion is expected from non-oil subsector for the incoming year.
Total sum of N350 billion proposed for special interventions (recurrent); N2.5 trillion is for capital capital expenditure for 2018 while deficit is pegged at N2.9 trillion (2.61%) against N113 trillion GDP.
The total oil production is pegged at 2.51 million barrels per day, while budget oil production volume net incremental was pegged at 2.3mbpd; $45 oil benchmark; and exchange rate was pegged at N305/$ for 2018 fiscal year.
On the expenditure for the incoming year, the National Judicial Council is to get N100 billion; Universal Basic Education (UBE) is to get N104,063,630,055; INEC is to get N45.5 billion; the National Assembly is to get N125 billion; the Public Complaints Commission is to get N4.2 billion; Human Rights Commission is to get N1.5 billion in 2018.
From total sum of N2.03trillion proposed for debt servicing, the sum of N1.76 trillion is for domestic debt; N263.8 billion is for foreign debt, while the sum of N220 billion is for sinking fund to retire maturing bond for local contractors.
From the total sum of N3.1 trillion for recurrent expenditure, out of which N65 billion is for the amnesty programme; N2.1 trillion is for personnel cost of Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) while overhead is N245 billion.
The fiscal deficit is to be maintained at 3% level as stipulated in the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007 but at an average of about 1.93% of GDP, but declining to less than one percent by 2020.
KEHINDE AKINTOLA, Abuja
