2014 budget may become a legal issue unless... —Senator Enang •Declares Excess Crude Account illegal

                                                    
PRESENTATION of the 2014 budge may become a legal issue should President Goodluck Jonathan decide to submit it without a resolution on the 2014-2016 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and the Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP).
Chairman, Senate Committee on Rules and Business, Senator Ita Enang, made the submission while speaking with newsmen at the weekend.
This was as he said the failure of the two chambers of the National Assembly to reach a consensus on the presentation was to prevent what he described as “post-budget disputations.”
According to Enang, in line with the Fiscal Responsibilities Act (FRA), it was only when the House of Representatives and the Senate had agreed on a harmonised crude oil benchmark price for 2014, among other requirements, that the budget could be presented.
“Now if the president intends to present the budget without the MTEF being given to him, I think there are some issues that may come up. If he decides to submit the budget without the MTEF, it may raise some legal issues,” he said.

Enang added that after meeting the requirements, as relating with the MTEF/FSP, President Jonathan could proceed to prepare the 2014 national budget.
It will be recalled that a three-day meeting of the conference committee of the National Assembly on the MTEF/FSP ended in a deadlock and postponed indefinitely, as a result of the refusal of the House of Representatives to shift ground on its insistence on $79 crude oil benchmark price.
While the Senate had shifted to $76.5 per barrel, the executive had proposed $74 per barrel as the benchmark for the 2014 budget.
“As of now, there is no unified figure that can yet be presented by the National Assembly to the president, on which he can base his preparation of the budget.
“I think we should be a little patient. It is not unusual for the legislature to work, agree or disagree on issues of revenue. Therefore, I think what is happening now on the table of the legislature is not unusual. We will soon resolve it and pass what we have to give to the president,” he said.
Ruling on the possibility of Jonathan presenting the 2014 budget estimates this year, Enang said “I cannot categorically say yes or no, since the committee is yet to report.”
Enang also described the  Excess Crude Account (ECA) as discretionary and an illegality.
“Excess crude account is an illegality, because there is no legal framework that allows, sets up, says who should use it and how it should be used.
“The Federal Government, through the Ministry of Finance, should, at every point in time, make available to us (at the National Assembly) the record of the excess crude and tell us what they want to use that money for.
“Excess crude money is not a profit. It is money that is properly rated as revenue of the federation, which should be shared between the three tiers of government,” he said.