President Muhammdu Buhari has presented the 2022-2024 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP) to the Senate for consideration and approval.
The Senate President Ahmad Lawan made this known on the floor on Tuesday while reading a letter sent to the Senate.
In the statement, Buhari said the submission of the MTEF/FSP was to give lawmakers enough time to consider and pass the 2022 budget in December to meet up with the January-December budget circle.
Thereafter, Lawan referred the communication to the Joint Committees on Finance, National Planning, Banking, Insurance, and other Financial institutions; Petroleum on Downstream, Upstream, Gas Resources and Foreign and local Debts.
The Senate has however set down the rules to enable the President of the Senate to refer the communication to the appropriate committee.
Accordingly, the President the Senate of the Senate then asked the committee to work for the next two days to be considered and passed on Thursday.
Recall that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday last week approved the document as required by the Fiscal Responsibility Act, projecting revenue generation of N6.54 trillion and N2.62 trillion to accrue to the Federation Account and VAT, respectively.
The council also authorised the funding of an N5.26 trillion budget deficit through borrowings.
Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed who briefed State House Correspondents at the end of the meeting, had said that said she presented a memo on behalf of the ministry to FEC with a 2022 projected revenue of N6.54 trillion and N2.62 trillion to accrue to the Federation Account and VAT, respectively.
She noted that this revenue is projected to increase in 2023 to 9.15 trillion, adding that the MTF FSP describes the Federal Government’s socio-economic and developmental objectives and priorities for the reporting period of 2022 to 2024 as well as the fiscal strategies to be put in place, and policies to achieve in the priorities.
The minister further explained that the report to the council highlighted the key drivers of the government’s revenue and the spending plans.
This article was originally published on Nigeria News