Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian Senate has said the refusal of the heads of invited Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to attend its Committee on Finance meetings will attract zero budget for such agencies.
This was announced as the upper legislative chamber commenced a five-day interactive session to review revenue projections contained in the 2021 -2023 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and the Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP), ahead of President Muhammadu Buhari’s presentation of the 2021 Appropriation Bill to the National Assembly.
At the opening ceremony on Wednesday, Chairman of the Committee, Mr Solomon Adeola, told that the invited MDAs that they will not entertain any attendance by proxy.
He said only heads and Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of MDAs invited are expected to appear before it or its appearance will be considered null and void.
The federal government hopes to have a budget expenditure framework projected at N12.658 trillion for the 2021 fiscal year in accordance with 2021-2023 MTEF FSP.
Contained in the latest Economic Outlook document signed by the Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Mrs Ahmed Zainab, the figure representes a 17.2 per cent increase of the revised N10.8 trillion 2020 budget.
The aggregate revenue available for the budget for next year is projected at N7.498 trillion while the aggregate expenditure level is projected to be N12.658 trillion.
On the other hand, the aggregate expenditure is made up of Statutory Transfers of N481.41 billion, Debt Service of N3.124 trillion, and Sinking Fund of N220 billion.
Recurrent (non-debt) expenditure is also put at N5.746 trillion and capital expenditure (exclusive of capital in Statutory Transfers) has N3.086 trillion.
Of the capital expenditure, the MDAs capital was pegged at N1.485 trillion.
It added that the key parameters for the 2021-23 fiscal framework were set in line with the global and domestic economic outlook.
Meanwhile, the Statutory Transfers of N481.41 billion consist of allocations to the National Judicial Council (NJC), Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), National Assembly (NASS), Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Public Complaints Commission (PCC), North East Development Commission (NEDC) and Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF).
These arms of government and agencies, the ministry said, are expected to apply the funds transferred strictly to accomplish the purposes for which they are intended.
All beneficiaries of statutory transfers were also required to provide the BOF periodic reports of the allocation and expenditure of the funds received, in compliance with the Fiscal Responsibility Act (2007).
“The N3.124 trillion in respect of Debt Service is made up of N2.183 trillion for Domestic Debt, and N940.89 billion for Foreign Debt. Additionally, N220 billion is provisioned for the Sinking Fund to retire maturing loans,” the outlook read.
It was also noted that the aggregate sum of N3.086 trillion, which excludes capital component of statutory transfers, has been set aside for six sundry critical capital expenditures.
They include N1.485 trillion for MDAS’ capital expenditure, N234.19 billion for Capital Supplementation, and N337.06 billion for Grants and donor-funded projects.
Others are N20 billion for Special Intervention Programme, N4335.59 billion for GOEs, and N674.11 billion for Multi-lateral and Bi-lateral Project-tied loans.
