By Sanni Onogu and Tony Akowe, Abuja
The National Assembly yesterday acceded to President Muhammadu Buhari’s request for adjustments to this year’s fiscal framework. It approved a revised budget of over N17 billion for the year with a provision of N4trillion for oil subsidy.
The approval followed the consideration of a report by the Senate Committee on Finance which was presented by the Chairman of the Committee Senator Solomon Adeola.
The House also amended the appropriation act to incorporate the N4 trillion estimate for subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit in the budget in line with the revised MTEF passed by the House in accordance with the President’s request.
The House also approved an increase in Police budget by N182 billion to take care of Police salaries.
Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation, Aliyu Betara said the increase in Police salaries has however jacked up the size of the 2022 budget to N17,319, 704,091,019 from an initial N17, 126,873,917,692.
In forwarding the request for the revision of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework, the President had requested the lawmakers to approve an additional N3.557 trillion in addition to the N442.72 billion provided in the budget for subsidy, thereby raising the final figure to N4trillion.
Both Chambers approved $73 per barrel as proposed by the President, and as well approved Oil Production Volume of 1.600 million per day; Petroleum Motor Spirit (PMS) and a cut in the provision for federally funded upstream projects being implemented by N200 billion from N352.8 billion while approving an increase in the Federal Government Independent Revenue of N400 billion, the chamber gave its nod for an additional provision of N182.4 billion to cater for the needs of the Nigeria Police Force.
A debt service provision of N76.13 billion was provided for by the Senate, in addition to net reductions in Statutory Transfers by N66.07 billion.
A breakdown of the net reductions are as follows: NDDC, by N13.46 billion from N102.78 billion to N89.32 billion; NEDC, by N6.30 billion from N48.08 billion to N41.78 billion; and UBEC, by N23.16 billion from N112.29 billion to N89.13 billion.
Others are Basic Health Care Fund, by N11.58 billion from N56.14 billion to N44.56 billion; and NASENI, by N11.58 billion from N56.14 billion to N44.56 billion.
The Senate and the lower chamber also approved the fiscal deficit of N7.35 trillion, in line with Buhari’s request. Adeola, in his presentation, almost in tandem with his counterpart in the House, Betara, said that the total budget deficit is projected to increase by N965.42 billion to N7.35 trillion, representing 3.99 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
He said the incremental deficit will be financed by new borrowings from the domestic market. Lawmakers, who took turns to make contributions during consideration of the report on the review of the 2022 fiscal framework, blamed the country’s economic downturn on crude oil theft. Senator Olubunmi Adetunmbi (Ekiti North), said the Federal Government and security agencies owe it a duty to stop the stealing of our common wealth, lamenting that at a time when most countries of the world were reaping bountiful harvest due to the increase in crude oil prices occasioned by the Russian-Ukrainian crisis, Nigeria is left out owing to its inability to meet its OPEC quota.
The Senate Leader, Yahaya Abdullahi, said the country should be in a state of mourning over what is currently happening. He expressed worry over the increasing cases of oil theft in spite of huge resources allocated to the military, police and others.
Senators Gabriel Suswam (Benue North East) and Betty Apiafi (Rivers West), called on the chamber not to hastily approve the President’s request to adjust the 2022 fiscal framework until certain questions are answered. While Suswam raised concerns on the widening gap in budget deficit and the Federal Government’s decision to resort to funding from the Capital Market,
Apiafi, demanded answers from the NNPC and relevant agencies on solutions put in place to curb crude oil theft. The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan called on the Federal Government to take “radical” steps towards stopping the theft of crude oil by economic saboteurs. He also called for a stop to the importation of refined petroleum products into the country, so as to cut down on expenditures incurred in the process, as well as to maximize profits from crude oil sales.
”This (crude theft) is not something to play politics with, and I don’t think the answers are going to be easy to come by. “Radical decisions would have be taken, but before we find answers we have to live with this, but we have to be fast as possible in looking for answers.
“I had a session with the Chief of Defence Staff about a month ago, and my discussion with him was on the oil theft and the efforts of our security agencies to combat this menace. “And like we know, our security agencies are doing their best but we have people – our people – who are sabotaging the oil industry, because the oil theft is not perpetrated by somebody else but by people who are citizens.
“So, we need to continue to support the security agencies in whatever way possible so that they are able to deal with this. “I also believe that, whether there is oil theft or not, until we stop the importation of refined products to Nigeria, we will never get the best out of the oil and gas industry.
”So, we should work to ensure that we produce our refined products locally, because that is one way of cutting our expenditure on importation. “I also think that diversification of the economy is key, because we depend so much on this oil and gas industry, the slightest issues that affect it internationally affect us seriously in our country”, the Senate President said.