Senate raises 2020 budget proposal to N10.729trn

By Tola Akinmutimi

The Senate on Thursday passed the 2020-2022 medium term expenditure framework and fiscal strategy paper (MTEF/FSP) submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari last week, with slight adjustments of tis budgetary figures.

The passage of the fiscal document proposal followed the presentation of the Senate Committee on Finance’s report and subsequent consideration by the lawmakers

Some of the highlights of the Senate’s deliberations and resolution on the proposal were the raising of the 2020 Appropriation Bill proposal from N10.002 trillion to N10.729.4 trillion and increasing the oil benchmark from $55 per barrel to $57 per barrel, representing a $2 increase
.

The upper chamber increased also the 2020 revenue target set for the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) by N557.4 billion, from N942.6 billion to N1.5trillion.

However, the legislature retained the N305 per dollar exchange rate as well as oil production benchmark at 2.18 million barrels per day (mbpd) proposed  by the Executive in the MTEF/FSP document.