The Nigerian Senate has reviewed the country’s oil production output from 1.9 million barrel per day (mbpd) proposed by the Executive arm of government to 1.8 mbpd. It made the review while passing the amended 2020-2022 Medium Term Expenditure Framework/Fiscal Strategy Paper.
The passage came following consideration and adoption of the recommendations of the Senate Committee on Finance. Chairman of the Committee, Senator Olamilekan Adeola, in his presentation disclosed that as at March 2020, the Federal Government’s retained revenue was N950.56 billion, out of which N464.03 billion was from oil revenue.
The lawmaker stated that the sum of N129.72 billion and N42.23 billion made up amounts from Company Income Tax (CIT) and Value Added Tax (VAT); while Customs collection was N97.47 billion.
Accordingly, the Senate while adopting the Committee’s recommendations, increased the price of crude oil to $28 per barrel as against the $25 per barrel proposed by the executive.
While retaining the exchange rate of N360/US$1 as proposed in the MTEF amendment, the Senate resolved that the sum of N500 billion intervention fund drawn from various accounts, for the purpose of funding projects already added to the proposed revised 2020 budget be sent to the National Assembly for approval.
The lawmakers maintained that the deficit of N4.95 trillion be financed from new borrowings estimated at N4.17 trillion, while expecting that N1.98 trillion of the new borrowings will be from external concessional sources.
It gave the external multilateral sources as mainly the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, African Development Bank and Islamic Development Bank. While retaining the Federal Government’s reduction of budgeted revenue figure for Customs from N1.5 trillion to N950 billion, the upper chamber resolved that the Federal Government portion of N360 billion from first line NNPC deductions go straight to the revenue coffers for funding of the 2020 amended budget.
The Senate also resolved that the non-oil revenue which include the Capital Gaines Tax, Stamp Duty and Company Income Tax be sustained as contained in the proposed MTEF/FSP amendment with serious supervision with a view to blocking revenue leakages.
Chibisi Ohakah, Abuja
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