Teddy Oscar, Abuja
The House of Representatives on Thursday adopted the 2014-2016 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) of the Federal Government of Nigeria, and subsequently pegged the oil benchmark for the three years at $79 per barrel.
The decision of the House is a road away from what President Goodluck Jonathan had submitted to the two chambers of the National Assembly for approval.
Jonathan had submitted the sum of $76.5 for approval, and the Senate had gone ahead to approve same for the same period.
The House also adopted an average exchange rate of $160/N1 for the same period under review, as well as 30 percent for corporate tax and 5 percent for value added tax (VAT).
These adoptions were contained in the report of the joint committees on finance, appropriations, legislative budget and research and aids, loans and debt management report on the 2014-2016 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) of the Federal Government of Nigeria, which was presented on the floor of the Green Chambers by Hon. Abdulmumin Jubril, chairman, House Committee on Finance.
In their recommendations, the lawmakers also fixed the average crude oil production at 2,3883, 2,5007, and 2,5497 million barrels per day for 2014, 2015 and 2016, respectively.
Other recommendations include that, “the government should strengthen and consolidate its fiscal strategy to narrow the gap between projected and actual revenue for the period 2014-2016 curtailing oil theft and diversifying the economy to increase tax bases so as to increase tax revenue.”
It also recommended that “the details of SURE-P projects to be executed be attached as an addendum to the annual budget estimates for approval by the National Assembly.”
On the excess crude account (ECA),the lawmakers approved that ‘the distribution to the tiers of government of N666.9 from the excess crude account as proposed by the executive” and “augmentation from the ECA should be projected crude production fall below budgeted, provided there are funds in the account.”
