FG presents revised MTEF/FSP to Senate

The Federal Government has presented a revised 2018 to 2020 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) to the Senate for consideration.
The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate was specifically adjusted from 4.5 per cent to 3.5 per cent.
Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, who made the disclosure at an interactive session with the Senate Joint Committee on Finance, Appropriations and National Planning in Abuja on Tuesday, however, explained that other key parameters and assumptions like oil benchmark, daily oil production estimates and exchange rate were retained.
She also allayed fears that the adjustments would affect the 2018 Budget proposal of N8.61 trillion, adding that the adjustments had already been reflected in the 2018 Budget estimates submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari to a joint session of the National Assembly on November 7.

The adjustment

Zainab listed some of the adjustments made on the 2018 to 2020 MTEF submitted by the Executive to the National Assembly in October to include: “N710 billion to be generated from the restructuring of government’s equity in all the Joint Venture oil assets.
“N320 billion additional revenues from revision of terms to improve government take in the Production Sharing Contracts; additional N60 billion from Excise Duties on cigarettes and alcohol, among others.
“The key assumptions on the macro framework is as defined in our MTEF and the only difference in the key assumptions is that we have adjusted the GDP growth from 4.5 per cent.
“And this is as a result of a meeting we had with you while discussing the last MTEF down to 3.5 per cent. But all the other assumptions at 2.3 million barrels per day, oil price of $45 per barrel, exchange rate of N305/$1 are the same.
“The fiscal deficit is now N2.05 trillion, down by over N940billion, also pushing the debt/GDP ratio downwards from 2.61 per cent to 1.77 percent,” she said.
The Minister said the adjustments were the fallout of the recommendations of a committee chaired by Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun, which identified additional revenue sources of about N1trillion to cut the 2018 Budget deficit.