House Of Reps Approves MTEF

The House of Representatives yesterday passed the 2020 to 2022 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy (MTEF) Paper.
This followed the presentation of the report of the committees on Finance and Appropriations on MTEF by Chairman House Committee on Finance Rep. James Faleke, during the plenary session.
The house recommended the adoption of 2.18 million barrels per day (mbpd) as daily production output in 2020.
It noted that the production would be realisable due to concerted efforts by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and security agencies to combat the menace of oil theft and vandalism.
The lower chamber also recommend the adoption of $57/barrel as crude oil benchmark price for the fiscal year 2020.
The reps further recommended that the revenue target of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) of N942.6 billion for 2020 should be increased to N1.5 trillion.
It said the increase was as a result of the performance of NSC in last nine months with three months still outstanding.
“The NCS revenue as at September stood at N1 trillion against the budget figure of N969.8 billion for the year 2019.
“The Joint Committee commends the NCS for exceeding the targeted revenue despite the global economic challenges and closure of the Nigerian borders.”
The green chambers also suggested 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.
The increment, it stressed, would decrease the size of the budget deficit from N1.7 trillion to N1.5 trillion and also increase the total capital available to ministries, departments and agencies by N357 billion, from N1.01 trillion to N1.367 trillion.