KEHINDE AKINTOLA
The House of Representatives on Wednesday approved the 2019-2021 Medium Term Expenditure Framework MTEF and Fiscal Strategy Paper for the fiscal year ending 31st December 2019.
The approval was in pursuant to provisions of the Financial Responsibility Act, 2007.
This followed the adoption of the report of its joint Committees on Finance, Appropriations, Aids, Loans and Debt Management, Legislative Budget and Research and National Planning and Economic Development on the MTEF and FSP documents.
In his lead debate, Ibrahim Babangida, Chairman of the House Committee on Finance, urged the House to adopt the recommendations of the joint Committees on the the MTEF so that the 2019 Budget of the Federal Government can be expeditiously considered and passed into law by the National Assembly.
In line with Federal Government’s proposal, the House approved 2.3 million barrels of crude oil production as daily production target.
Similarly, the House adopted $60 as benchmark for crude oil in the 2109 fiscal year.
According to the House resolution, the lawmakers adopted N305/$ as official exchange rate for the fiscal year 2019.
The lawmakers also adopted the proposed sum of N1.6 trillion as new borrowing to finance the country’s budget deficit.
In the bid to achieve the projected revenue, the lawmakers urged government to increase the tempo of collectable revenues in all its ministries, departments and agencies MDAs with a view to reducing budget deficit.
It would be recalled that the House on Tuesday April 10, 2019 adopted the MTEF and FSP documents earlier submitted to it by President Muhammadu Buhari.
To this end, Speaker Yakubu Dogara who presided over the plenary mandated all the relevant House Committees to fine-tune the document and report to the House for further legislative action.
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