The Senate has considered and approved the report of its Joint Committees on Finance; National Planning and Economic Affairs on the 2021-2023 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) ahead of the 2021 Budget presentation scheduled to hold on Thursday, 8 October 2020.

Presenting the report of the Joint Committees at the plenary session of Wednesday, 7 October  2020, the Chairman, Committee on Finance, Sen. Solomon Olamilekan Adeola (APC: Lagos)  informed lawmakers that the 2021-2023 MTEF and FSP highlights the macro-economic objectives of the government over the period of 2021-2023 and  indicates the policy measures to ensure its achievement. As such, the government aims to sustain economic growth, facilitate economic stability and promote poverty reduction by:

• Sustaining Economic Growth and Ensuring Inclusiveness
• Supporting Employment Creation and Preserving Jobs
• Ensuring Macroeconomic Stability.

Sen. Adeola stated that the 2021-2023 MTEF and FSP was formulated in such a way that minimizes the adverse socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and promotes economic growth. He added that the Joint Committee conducted a 5-day public hearing on the 2021-2023 MTEF and FSP to avail Government Owned Enterprises (GOEs), Revenue Generating Agencies, the Ministries of Finance, Budget and National planning, as well as the Budget Office, the opportunity to present justifications on their economic and fiscal estimates; enable scrutiny of the revenue pattern contained therein; review revenue performance  for the year 2018-2020 and revenue projections for the year 2021-2023.

In his submissions, Sen. Adeola explained that the outcomes and deliberations from the public hearing indicates that several revenue generating agencies had failed to meet their yearly revenue targets for the period 2018-2020 under review; engaged in arbitrary and frivolous expenditure; expended enormous funds on overhead and re-current expenditure including personnel costs; engaged in outright non-remittance or under-remittance of operating surpluses; and failed to work towards meeting their revenue targets.

In view of the aforementioned observations, Sen. Adeola urged the Senate to approve the following as recommendations of the Joint Committee:

1. The proposed revenue and expenditure of the FG contained in the 2021-2023 MTEF and FSP which highlights the daily crude oil production estimates at 1.86 mbpd, 2.09 mbpd and 2.38 mbpd for 2021, 2022 and 2023 respectively; benchmark oil price of USD$40 per barrel; an exchange rate of N379/US$; GDP growth rate of 3.00%; Inflation growth rate at 11.95%; Fiscal deficit of N5.19 trillion (including GOEs); and N4.28 trillion for New Borrowings (including Foreign and domestic Borrowing). Proposed expenditure include, Statutory transfers of N484.49 billion; Debt Service at N3.12 trillion; Sinking Fund, N220 billion; Pension, Gratuities & Retirees Benefits, N520.69 billion; Total FGN Expenditure, N13.08 trillion; Total Recurrent (Non-debt), N5.67 trillion; Personnel Costs (MDAs + GOEs), N3.76 trillion; Capital expenditure (exclusive of Transfers), N3.58 trillion; Special Intervention (Recurrent), N350 billion; and Special intervention (Capital), N20 billion.
2. That the Senate amends the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007, specifically sections 21(1) and 22 (1)(2) to improve the revenue generating and remittance capacity of MDAs.
3. That relevant Standing Committees of the Senate review and examine laws that guides the operations of all revenue generating agencies to determine sections to be amended.
4. That the FG streamlines all stamp duty collection activities of MDAs and domicile same with the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) to eliminate loss of revenue.
5. That the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning as well as the Budget Office re-examine assumptions underlying revenue targets to ensure credibility and accuracy of estimates.
6. That the FG reviews the suitability of Heads of Agencies to ensure that overall objectives of the MTEF and FSP are consistently achieved.
7. That sanctions be instituting to MDAs for failing to meet up with revenue targets after it is established that was no reason for non-performance.
8. That the FG ensures MDAs promptly pay for services rendered by other agencies of government, except it can established that beneficiary agencies are statutorily exempted from such payments.
9. That the FG directs MDAs to pay all outstanding remittances into the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) no later than 30-days from approval of this resolution.
10.  That the FG through the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) examine activities of MDAs currently operating under the partial commercialisation agreement to determine MDAs qualified to compete with the private sectors for revenue generation.
11. That the FG directs the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF) to develop cost-control templates for revenue generating agencies.
12. That the FG ensures payment of all statutory transfers due to MDAs to enhance their overall performance.
13. That the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) develop strategies to reduce its average cost of production to $31per barrel in line with international best practices.

Similarly, the House of Representatives on Wednesday, 30 September 2020 approved the report of its Joint Committee on the 2021-2023 MTEF and FSP.