The approval followed the presentation of the report of a Senate Joint Committee, chaired by Senator Sani Musa, after the panel scrutinized details of the estimates proposed by the various federal ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) in the fiscal document.

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The upper chamber during the document’s consideration at plenary on Wednesday approved a borrowing plan of N7.8 trillion for 2024, N9 trillion budget deficit and federal government’s total expenditure of N26 trillion for the 2024 fiscal year.

The President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, after an extensive deliberation on the document put the approval of the fiscal document to a voice vote, and it was overwhelmingly supported by the members.

Specifically, the upper chamber pegged the oil price benchmark of $73 per barrel of crude oil, 1.78 million barrels per day and sustained, as contained in the MTEF/FSP documents.

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It also approved the special intervention (recurrent) of N200 billion, special intervention (capital) of N7b billion and and an exchange rate of 700 naira to a United States dollar.

The Senate also resolved that all items locally produced should be banned from importation.

The joint committee had, in the report, observed that a significant number of the federal government’s revenue-generating agencies engaged in arbitrary, frivolous and extra-budgetary expenditure.

Their recommendation, that a review of the laws of all revenue generating agencies be carried out, was approved by the Senate.

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The red chamber, therefore, urged the National Assembly to begin the process of amending the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA, 2007) in order to enhance the agencies’ ability to enforce fiscal responsibility and impose sanctions on erring corporations.

The Senate, during the session, considered the joint panel’s recommendation that the subsidiaries of NIPOST were irregular and illegal, hence they should be wound-up and deregistered.

Members of the Senate argued extensively on the recommendation by the joint panel that the sum of N10 billion released by the Ministry of Finance for the proposed restructuring and recapitalization of the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) be thoroughly investigated.

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Another recommendation that attracted debate was the recommendation that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) work towards reducing its production and operational costs to increase available government revenue.

After the polarized arguments, the resolution was adopted unaltered by the house.

Other recommendations are that federal government agencies ensure the deployment of ICT in the collection of all revenues by ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), including stamp duty collection activities to block leakages.

VON