President Buhari Increases 2022 Budget Estimate From N13.98tr to N16.45tr
President Muhammdu Buhari has increased the aggregate expenditure of the Federal Government for the 2022 fiscal year from N13.98trillion to N16.45trillion.
The new amount represents an increase of N2.47 trillion.
The National Assembly had recently passed N13.98trillion as aggregate expenditure of the Federal Government for the 2022 fiscal year.
This came as Buhari is expected to present the 2022 Appropriations Bill before a joint session of the National Assembly on Thursday this week.
Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege disclosed this on Tuesday while presiding over plenary.
Omo-Agege urged the Senate Committee on Finance to hasten action on the President’s request for revision of the 2022-2024 Medium Term Expenditure Framework.
The increase in the aggregate expenditure for the 2022 fiscal year is contained in Buhari’s letter to the Senate read by Omo-Agege.
In the letter titled: “Submission of the revised FGN 2022-2024 Medium Term Fiscal Framework” Buhari said the increase was necessitated by the need to reflect the new fiscal terms in the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021 as well as other critical expenditures in the 2022 budget.
According to the President, the “underlying drivers of the 2022 fiscal projections, such as oil price benchmark, oil production volume, exchange rate, GDP growth and inflation rate reflect emergent realities and the macroeconomic outlook, and remain unchanged as in the previously approved 2022-24 MTEF&FSP.”
He noted that the PIA establishes a progressive fiscal framework aimed at encouraging investment in the Nigerian Petroleum Industry.
“This significantly alters the oil and gas fiscal terms and has necessitated changes in the 2022-2024 Medium Term Fiscal Framework,” he said.
The President said that the fiscal effects of PIA implementation are assumed to kick in by mid-year 2022.
“The revised 2022-24 Fiscal Framework is premised on hybrid of January-June (based on current fiscal regime) and July-December (based on PIA fiscal regime), while 2023 and 2024 are now fully based on the PIA.”
On fiscal deficit for 2022, Buhari said: “The Aggregate Deficit (inclusive of GOEs and Project-tied Loans) is projected to increase by N692.0 billion or to 3.42% of GDP from 3.05 per cent of GDP.”
“As the 2022 budget of the Federal Government will be prepared based on the pararneters and fiscal assumptions of the approved Revised 2022-2024 MTEF, I seek the cooperation of the National Assembly for expeditious legislative action on the submission,” he added.
