Senate to Rework Buhari's 3-yr 'EMPTY' Economic Blueprint

President Muhammadu Buhari and his Economic Management Team on Wednes­day came under the bashing of the Senate for presenting an “unrealis­tic and empty” 2016-2018 Medi­um Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) to the National Assembly for consideration.
The Senate, which declared the economic document as impossible to implement, mandated its Joint Committee on Appropriation, Fi­nance and National Planning to re­work it to reflect the current eco­nomic realities in the country.

President Buhari had on Sep­tember 30, 2016 submitted the MTEF to the Senate President Abubakar Bukola Saraki and the Upper Chamber had attempted to consider it, but discovered that the blueprint had no details attached to it.
On November 3, 2015, the law­makers decided to return the doc­ument to the Presidency.
At yesterday’s sitting, the Senate Leader, Mohammed Ali Ndume, represented the Executive’s 2016-2018 MTEF and Fiscal Strategy Pa­per for consideration and adoption by the Senate.
Ndume said that the MTEF and the Fiscal Strategy Paper pro­posed a budget predicated on an oil revenue benchmark of $42.5 per barrel for 2017-2019 while the government continues the diver­sification of the non-oil revenues which are more predictable and less volatile.
He said: “The non-oil revenue for 2017-2019 is guided by the im­proved efficiency of collection and expected growth in non-oil GDP, and accordingly customs collec­tion, Companies Income Tax, Val­ue Added Tax and FGN Independ­ent Revenue are non-oil sectors the government is expecting revenue from in 2017.
“The proposal also shows that the government is projecting a 3.02% GDP growth in 2017 while inflation is expected to moderate at 12.92%.
“The GDP growth would be driven by strong performance in agriculture, wholesale and retail, construction and real estate sec­tors, among others,” he said.
The GDP growth for the me­dium term is based on the assump­tions of average oil production of 2.2mbpd‚2.3 mbpd and 2.4mbpd for 2017, 2018 and 2019, respective­ly, with average benchmark oil price of $42.5pb, $45pb‚ and $50pb for 2017, 2018 and 2019, respectively as well as an average exchange rate of N290 per dollar. It is also based on an average growth rate of 9.69% during the period.
Reacting sharply to Ndume’s submission, the Chairman, Sen­ate Committee on Finance, Sen­ator John Enoh said: “I think that this document is sent to the Sen­ate in fulfilment of the requirement of the Fiscal Responsibility Act and normally, why it covers three years, the next immediate year is the more important year and I think that our discussions and our focus would be targeted at that especially.
“I think that in looking at the documents following Senator Adeleke, the first is to consider is the broad and the basic assump­tions that are contained in the doc­ument that those assumptions have to first deal with the daily oil pro­duction of 2.2mbd which has not changed from where it was in 2016 and I think with the backdrop of a lot that is happening in terms of oil production and I think that the government, especially the Execu­tive arm, has to put in place prop­er engagements strategy in the Ni­ger Delta if it hopes to achieve this because as I speak, I am sure we are losing on a daily basis more than 600,000 or 800,000 barrels.”
Senator Dino Melaye, who ap­peared to have been angered by the projections raised in the MTEF by the Economic Team, said he was disappointed by the indices and indicators contained in the docu­ment, saying “it is all tissues of lies.”
Senator Samuel Anyanwu, who corroborated Dino’s observa­tions, challenged his colleagues to be Godfearing in their assessment of the MTEF. He said: “We must be honest to ourselves. This is the first time I have seen the two divides agree to call a spade a spade. I want to say that if you look at the lead de­bate, how can this be realised look­ing at the indices, the indicators, can they pull this country from the pre­sent economic recession?”