Deputy Senate Leader, Senator Bala Ibn Naa’llah, on Thursday, said that the delayed passage of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) would not adversely affect the passage of 2017 budget.
The Deputy Leader, who spoke to newsmen in the Senate said that the lawmakers have scheduled a meeting on the MTEF matter for next Tuesday, December 13, 2016.
He said: “What people don’t understand is that the approval of MTEF is not a precondition for accepting the budget. But it is a precondition for passing the budget into law. I want you to understand the difference.
“What does MTEF entail? It is giving us a graphic expectation of a country of its income either perceived, derived or accrued.
“Now, if the president presents the budget on Wednesday, which we hope will be presented, the Senate will now go ahead to approve the MTEF so that it will provide the foundation for us to examine what has been presented by the President on Wednesday as a budget of the nation for the 2017 year.”
The Fiscal Responsibility Act provided that:
“Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in this Act or any other law, the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework shall:
* be the basis for the preparation of the estimates of revenue and expenditure required to be prepared and laid before the National.
Assembly under section 81 (1) of the Constitution.
*The sectoral and compositional distribution of the estimates of expenditure referred to in subsection (1) of this section shall be consistent with the medium term developmental priorities set out in the Medium Term expenditure Framework.
It further stated in its section nine that:
“The estimates of revenue and expenditure (in this Act referred to as the “Annual Budget’) shall be accompanied by:
(a) a copy of the underlying revenue and expenditure profile for the next two years;
(b) a report setting out actual and budgeted revenue and expenditure and detailed analysis of the performance of’ the budget for the 18 months up to June of the preceding financial year;
(c) a revenue framework broken down into monthly collection targets prepared on the basis of the predetermined Reference Commodity Price as contained in Medium-Term Expenditure Framework.
(d) measures on cost, cost control and evaluation of results of programmes financed with budgetary resources;
(e) a Fiscal Target Appendix derived from the underlying Medium-Term
Expenditure Framework setting out the following targets for that financial year-
(i) target inflation rate,
(ii) target fiscal account balances,
(iii) any other development target deemed appropriate; and
(f) a Fiscal Risk Appendix evaluating the fiscal and other related risks to the annual budget and specifying measures to be taken to offset the occurrence of such risks.”
and then