President Buhari laying the 2018 Approrpiation Act before NASS last November
2019 Budget: Buhari presents N8.73tr estimates to N/Assembly next month
NEWS DIGEST–President Muhammadu Buhari will next month present a budget estimate of N8.73tr to the National Assembly for next year’s fiscal calendar, Daily Trust learnt last night.
A presidency source told Daily Trust that the president will soon write the National Assembly to request for a date to present the budget proposal to the joint session of the parliament.
This year’s budget was presented on November 7, 2017 to the joint session of the National Assembly, Daily Trust recalled.
The source, who pleaded not to be named, said: “It is the National Assembly that will give the President a date. The president will soon request that a date be given to him to present the budget. That has been the practice. All I know, the minister said next month.”
At yesterday’s Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Buhari, the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF)/Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) for 2019-2021 was approved.
Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, said budget estimates of N8.73tr was proposed for next year’s fiscal calendar, N400bn lower than that of this year.
He said the council has also pegged the price of crude oil per barrel at $60, exchange rate at $305 and daily crude oil production at 2.3m.
“Today FEC approved 2019-2021 MTEF and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP). It was approved and it would be submitted to the National Assembly for their consideration,” he said
He said the MTEF/FSP that was approved was designed to translate strategic development objective of the economic recovery and growth plan into a realistic and implementable budget framework.
“The key highlights are the following assumptions which are being proposed for the 2019 budget. Oil price benchmark of $60, oil production of 2.3m barrel per day, exchange rate of $305, GDP growth rate of 3.01 percent. In addition, the MTEF project a budget size for 2019 of N8.73tr which is about N400bn less than the N9.12tr for 2018,” he said.
Responding to question on why the budget was N400bn lower than that of this year, “The budget that we actually submitted to the National Assembly was N8.6tr for this year, it is smaller than the final budget but it is actually bigger than the figure that we submitted. The idea is to ensure that we submit a finance-able budget.
“We resolved that we borrow a lot to get out of the recession and reflate the economy and as revenue picks up, we will reduce the borrowing. The level of borrowing for next year’s budget will be slightly less than that of 2018,” he said, adding that “the full details will be submitted to the National Assembly and after they read it, it will be on our ministry’s website.”
