OPEC: Senate Postpones Second Reading of 2018 Budget, MTEF Passage

• OPEC: Senate Postpones Second Reading of 2018 Budget, MTEF Passage

The Senate on Thursday concluded debate on the general assumptions of the 2018 Appropriation Bill but postponed the second reading to Tuesday.

The upper chamber of the National Assembly also postponed the consideration of the report by its Joint Committee on Finance, Appropriations, and National Planning and Economic Affairs on the 2018-2020 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper to Tuesday.

The passage of the MTEF/FSP is supposed to precede the consideration of the appropriation bill of the next budget year, but the National Assembly has gone ahead to consider the 2018 Appropriation Bill, which is now awaiting the second reading.

On Thursday, the lawmakers said they were expecting the outcome of the ongoing meeting by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries for the latest oil prices, which would influence their choice of benchmark price for the budget.

Moving a motion, the Majority Leader, Ahmad Lawan, said, “OPEC is meeting today (Thursday) to decide the production quota for the various members. Therefore, I believe that we need to know what the production quota for Nigeria will be so that we will take a very informed and enlightened position for the daily production for our crude.

“I believe that this is a strong enough ground for us to stand down consideration of this report till next week.”

The Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio, seconded the motion.

The Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over the plenary, thanked Lawan for pointing out the “very important issue.”

He said, “I think it is important that we wait and see the outcome of the OPEC meeting regarding production quota. That (volume of) export will determine what will be the benchmark ultimately.

“I just want to appeal that we support the prayer that we step down the consideration of this report so that by the time we come back on Tuesday, we will be able to have all the necessary information that will enable an informed decision on the matter.”

The prayer was unanimously granted by the Senate.

The senators, however, concluded debate on the 2018 budget proposal, after which the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, summarised the issues raised by the lawmakers.

He said, “Our concerns are on the assumptions. We are happy that we will have an opportunity when we take the MTEF on Tuesday to be able to fully discuss and debate it. On that note, what we are going to do, because of the importance of the MTEF and especially the comments made on the issue of assumptions, we will defer it to Tuesday when we will finish with the MTEF.”