Buhari to present 2016 budget 3 days to Xmas

President Muhammadu Buhari will present the 2016 budget to a joint session of the National Assembly on Tuesday, 22nd of December.

The President had yesterday written the National Assembly seeking permission to present the 2016 Appropriation Bill to a joint session of the Senate and House Representatives.

Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Aliyu Sabi, disclosed this while briefing reporters in Abuja.

Sabi said that the Senate considered the request of the President and granted him permission to present the 2016 budget on Tuesday, December 22, 2015 as requested.

The presidential memo for the presentation of the 2016 budget came even as the Senate yesterday approved the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) submitted to the National Assembly.

The consideration and approval of the MTEF paves the way for the presentation of the annual Appropriation Bill.

The Senate retained the $38 per barrel oil benchmark as proposed by the executive.

The lawmakers also approved the exchange rate of N197 to $1 as proposed by the Presidency.

Insiders however said that the approval of the benchmark of $38pb as proposed is ambitious as the global price of crude oil has slumped to about $36 per barrel from the $40 per barrel when the fiscal document was proposed.

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The upper chamber also approved the projection of 22m daily oil production volume in 2016 as proposed by the executive. It also approved the N5.720 billion non-oil revenue projection in 2016.

The approval of the document followed the submission, consideration and adoption of the report of the Senate Joint Committee on Finance and National Planning presented by the Chairman, Finance Committee, Senator John Owan Enoh.

The Senate asked the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to initiate measures meant to close the gap between parallel market and the official exchange rate. It also advised the federal government to sustain the current tempo towards increasing the Federal Government independent revenue and diversification of the economy.

It also said that the implementation of Treasury Single Account (TSA) with e-collection platform be sustained.

The Senate also implored the federal government to establish a data base and simultaneously consider creating a single salary account for all it’s employees with a view to streamlining and reducing personnel cost.

It resolved that “The relevant committees of the National Assembly should closely and constantly oversight the MDAs responsible for implementing special intervention programmes to ensure that the targeted populace benefits and in order to avoid abuse;

“The diversification of the economy should be accompanied with economic modernisation such that the economy can be more competitive and productive; arrears of 2015 fuel subsidy for domestic consumption as proposed in the MTEF be sustained; the finding of the infrastructural development stated in the MTEF should be clearly captured in the details of the 2016 Appropriation Bill.

“The National Assembly in close collaboration with the executive should as a matter of urgency consider an accelerated passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) particularly those sections with implication on joint venture funding by the federal government (JV Cash Calls).

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