The Senate again deferred consideration of the revised version of the 2018 to 2020 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP).
Consideration of the MTEF/FSP, which provides the parameters upon which the national budget is prepared, will now hold on Tuesday next week.
Senate Leader, Ahmad Lawan, who made this known at Thursday plenary, said it took the decision as it awaits the outcome of the meeting of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Vienna Austria, to decide on benchmark price for crude oil in the international market.
This is the third time the final consideration of MTEF/FSP has been postponed in the Senate. Consideration of the document earlier scheduled for Thursday was postponed, as lawmakers concluded Second Reading on the 2018 budget.
Prompted by a motion by Lawan, the upper legislative chamber agreed to step down the MTEF/FSP document until Tuesday when it would have known OPEC oil benchmark.
The country plans a budget of N8.6trn for 2018 with a projected oil revenue of N2.442 trillion, non-oil projection of N4.165 trillion.
Key assumptions of the budget include: oil benchmark price of $45 per barrel, daily oil production level of 2.3 million barrels per day, exchange rate of N305/$1, GDP Growth Rate of 3.5 percent, inflation rate of 12.42 percent, N113.09 trillion nominal GDP and N83.69 trillion Nominal Consumption.
At the debate on general principles and Second Reading of the N8.612 trillion 2018 budget proposal on Tuesday, some senators had described the estimates as unrealistic.
Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari had in October forwarded the document to the two chambers of the National Assembly for approval.
