Senate Refers MTEF, FSP To Finance Committee

The Senate on Thursday referred the 2020-2022 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) documents to its Committee on Finance.The committee chaired by Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola (APC, Lagos West) was given one week to come up with a report.The Senate had on Wednesday received an executive communication from President Muhammadu Buhari for consideration of the MTEF/FSP.The 2020–2022 MTEF/FSP was laid by the Senate Leader, Yahaya Abubakar Abdullahi, and referred to the Senate Committee on Finance for legislative work.The President of the Senate, Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan, while referring the documents to the Finance committee, said: “The document is hereby referred to the Senate Committee on Finance for further legislative action and they should lay their report before the Senate on Wednesday next week.”Recall that President Buhari had in a letter on the MTEF/FSP stated that key developments of the global and domestic environments were taken into consideration in the preparation of the MTEF/FSP.“The Government strives to ensure that estimated revenues are not only realistic, but also reasonably challenging in the face of its significantly constrained fiscal space.“Planned spending has been set at prudent and sustainable levels consistent with government’s overall developmental objectives as set out in the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP).“Given our shared objective of returning the budget to a predictable January – December fiscal year, with effect from 2020, I hereby forward the 2020/2022 FSP to the Distinguished Senate and trust that it would be extensively considered in order to facilitate the 2020 MTEF budget preparation,” the President said.