Lawan urges Buhari to present 2021 budget estimates in September

The president of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, on Tuesday at plenary urged the Executive arm of Government to work on the estimates for the 2021 budget to ensure timely presentation to the National Assembly by the end of September.

Mr Lawan made the call in his remarks after referring President Muhammadu Buhari’s 2021 to 2023 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper request to the Senate Committees on Finance; and National Planning for further legislative work.

While urging the Committees to engage the Ministries of Finance, Budget and National Planning on the MTEF/FSP request, Mr Lawan stressed the need for the panel to lend its support where necessary to revenue generating agencies towards meeting expected revenue targets.

The committees were given four weeks to report back to the Senate.

“The request of Mr President C-in-C is referred to the two committees, Senate Committees on Finance; Budget and National Planning, with Finance as the lead Committee.

“This Senate is giving the Committee four weeks within which to work very closely with the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, and particularly engagement with the revenue generating agencies where we are expecting them to meet their targets.

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“We need to ensure that they have all the support that they require from the National Assembly, particularly the Senate to meet their targets.

“Meanwhile, the executive should continue to work on the preparations for the 2021 budget.

“By this we are also equally committed to ensuring that we receive the budget estimates at the end of September and that we are able to consider the budget and get it passed before the end of December to repeat what we did for budget 2020,” Mr Lawan said. (NAN)