The Nigerian senate says it jas passed the medium term Expenditure framework and fiscal strategy paper ahead of the presentation of the 2021 budget which will be presented by President Muhammadu Buhari tomorrow at the red chambers.
In a post on his Facebook page, the senate president Ahmad Ibrahim Lawal said that the MTEF will help improving the revenue generating and remittance of Agencies of Government.
He wrote;
Today, the Senate passed the 2021-2023 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper ahead of the presentation of the 2021 Appropriation Bill to the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari tomorrow.
In the passage of the MTEF, improving the revenue generating and remittance capacity of Agencies of Government was central to our decision as this is key to the early and successful implementation of the budget.
As a result, we will be looking at amending Sections 21(1) and 21(2) of the Fiscal Responsibility Act as well as other laws guiding the operation of all revenue generating agencies with a view to plugging wastages, just as the Federal Government need to streamline stamp duty collection by Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
While we put in all necessary measures to enhance government revenue, the Federal Government would need to reduce its borrowing by seeking alternative ways of implementing infrastructural projects not funded through local and foreign loans.
There are projects that I feel we should ensure we don’t borrow to fund. We should explore other opportunities in sourcing funds such as the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOPublic-Privatevate Partnerships and so many other options. I think we should expl on those so that we minimize borrowing.
There are a lot of businesses that can ave interest in the development of our infrastructures, so we should explore the other means in order to ensure that we don’t accumulate so much deficit and end up spending so much of our revenue servicing debts.
But where we must borrow as this is inevitable, especially as we did not apply what we had during the good years to prepare us for the rainy days, such borrowing needs to be carefully applied.
We must also look at reducing the cost of governance especially with the merger of agencies as the recurrent expenditure profile of government is too high. There is a need for us to muster the political will because we know what to do, but when it comes to doing the right thing, we find it difficult to do it.
We need to really work closely with the Executive arm of Government. I know it is going to be a tough call because it will be said this is not