… as Senate says decision lies with Executive
Signs that the 2025 budget may not be ready for presentation to joint session of the National Assembly by the first week of December, are gradually emerging as templates to that effect are not well laid, ten days into November 2024.
This is as the Senate declared through its Committee on Finance that, decision on presentation of the 2025 budget strictly lies with the executive arm of government.
The 9th National Assembly, in collaboration with then President Muhammadu Buhari established a tradition of budget presentation in the first week of October of the proceeding year, after required templates for that effect like Medium Term Expenditure Framework ( MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP), had been presented for thorough scrutiny and dissection .
Under President Buhari, MTEF and FSP were always received in the month of September for required engagements with relevant revenue generating agencies by committees of the National Assembly .
Worried by the seeming delay on getting the vital documents from the Presidency in the month of November, journalists, on Friday last week, inquired from the Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance , Senator Mohammed Sani Musa when the 2025 budget, would be presented?
The senator replied that the decision lies with the executive, not the Senate and by extension, the National Assembly .
“The executive should be able to answer that question, because I know they are doing their work, they are working.
“As chairman of Senate Committee on Finance along with members of the committee, have just interacted with the minister of finance, the Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPCL) and other top managers of the Nation’s economy on performance of the 2024 budget.
“They are definitely working on the 2025 budget and will forward it to us when work on it must have been completed. Decision on that lies with the executive and not us at the National Assembly,” he said .
President Tinubu presented estimates for 2024 budget to joint session of the National Assembly on Wednesday, November 29, 2023 which delayed its passage by both the Senate and the House of Representatives to Saturday, 30th December, 2023 and signing into law on January 1st , 2024 by President Tinubu.
Nigerian Anchor checks reveal that at the level of the Executive, there is no mention of the expected 2025-2027 MTEF that should contain parameters upon which 2025 budget estimates like crude oil price benchmark, projected oil production per day, exchange rate of Naira to US dollar, inflation rate, and other variables would be based.
Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance and the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Wale Edun, after an interactive session assured assured Nigerians on Friday, that a ray of light is already showing at the end of the long tunnel of economic reforms by government .
“I believe in the assurance given by the Finance Minister that our economy is taking good shape through results from the reforms,” Senator Musa enthused.
“For example, our debt to GDP ratio is decreasing and not Increasing. The positive indices are already showing and within the next 16 to 18 months , Nigerians themselves will see the gains in practical terms,” he added.
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