FRANK ERNEST
President Muhammdu Buhari has increased the aggregate expenditure of the Federal Government for the 2022 by N2.47 trillion.
The National Assembly had passed aggregate budget of N13.98trillion for the 2022, but President Buhari in a revised MTEF/FSP increased the budget aggregate to N16.45trillion.
This is coming less than 48 hours that President Buhari expected to present the 2022 Appropriations Bill before a joint session of the National Assembly on Thursday this week.
The submission of the 2022 budget was made known by the Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege whille presiding over plenary.
Omo-Agege after reading President’s letter on revised 2022-2024 Medium Term Expenditure Framework implored the Senate Committee on Finance to hasten action on the President’s request for revision of the .
President Buhari in the letter titled: “Submission of the revised FGN 2022-2024 Medium Term Fiscal Framework” explained that the increase was necessitated by the need to reflect the new fiscal terms in the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021 as well as other critical expenditures in the 2022 budget.
According to the President, the “underlying drivers of the 2022 fiscal projections, such as oil price benchmark, oil production volume, exchange rate, GDP growth and inflation rate reflect emergent realities and the macroeconomic outlook, and remain unchanged as in the previously approved 2022-24 MTEF&FSP.”
He noted that the PIA establishes a progressive fiscal framework aimed at encouraging investment in the Nigerian Petroleum Industry.
According to him, This significantly alters the oil and gas fiscal terms and has necessitated changes in the 2022-2024 Medium Term Fiscal Framework.
The President said that the fiscal effects of PIA implementation are assumed to kick in by mid-year 2022.
He said, “The revised 2022-24 Fiscal Framework is premised on hybrid of January-June (based on current fiscal regime) and July-December (based on PIA fiscal regime), while 2023 and 2024 are now fully based on the PIA.
“The Aggregate Deficit (inclusive of GOEs and Project-tied Loans) is projected to increase by N692.0 billion or to 3.42% of GDP from 3.05 per cent of GDP.
“As the 2022 budget of the Federal Government will be prepared based on the pararneters and fiscal assumptions of the approved Revised 2022-2024 MTEF, I seek the cooperation of the National Assembly for expeditious legislative action on the submission.”
