Senate ‘ll pass 2020 Budget before Xmas break, Lawan assures Nigerians
…Says MTEF, FSP documents , already with parliament
President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan on Friday raised the hope that Nigeria may soon go back to January to December budget year circle as he said the 9th Senate will work towards passing the 2020 budget before the parliament went on Christmas break in December.
In processing next year’s appropriation bill, he said that required procedures will be strictly adhered to, in the consideration and passage of the proposals expected to be presented to the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari before the end of October.
The Senate President who spoke with journalists on his arrival into the country from a private foreign trip said in doing that , the lawmakers will first consider proposals made by the executive arm of government in the recently released 2020-2022 Medium Term Expenditure Frame Work ( MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper ( FSP).
He said, in fact, considering the MTEF and FSP documents will be the first major assignment of the Senate at resumption next week by passing it to its committee on Finance for the required legislative inputs .
Senator Lawan said it was gratifying that the executive came up with the MTEF/FSP documents earlier than before in paving the way for passage of the 2020 budget before the Christmas break in December .
” I have been informed that the executive has sent the request for the MTEF to the national Assembly and I am sure that would be the first that we would do by the grace of God. We hope to take the MTF within the first legislative week by passing it to the committee on Finance .
“The committee on finance would be saddled with that as its first major responsibility in ensuring that it works judiciously the MTF FSP requests and the Budget will come after that”, he said .
He added that the 2020 budget proposals itself when presented , would be expeditiously considered by both chambers of the National Assembly in ensuring that the budget cycle is returned back to January to December .
Highlights of the 2020-2022 MTEF/FSP documents released by the executive last week include, pegging of the projected budget profile for the year at N8.7trillion , $55 oil price bench mark as against $60 used for the N8.9trillion 2019 budget , 2.1million barrel oil production per as against 2.3 million barrels per day approved for the 2019 budget .
