The senate has passed the 2016 budget into law after weeks of
delay.
Presenting a report on the budget, on Wednesday, Danjuma Goje,
chairman senate committee on appropriation, said that the budget was “full of
controversy”, but that the senate would not want to delay its passage by adding
more controversies to it.
He said that there were lapses in the budget, but that the
committee had to work around them. He said that the delay in the passage of the
budget had already been given a political hue, hence Nigerians would blame the
legislature for any further delay.
In December, the budget proposal presented to a joint session of
the national assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari was N6.08trn. A total of
N351bn was for statutory transfers, N2.8trn for recurrent expenditure and N1.
8trn for capital expenditure.
The senate, based on the recommendation of the committee, adopted
$38 per barrel crude oil benchmark for the budget, as proposed by the federal
government. It also adopted a foreign exchange rate of N197 per dollar as
proposed by the government.
The senate, however, reduced the total budget sum from N6.07trn to
N6.06trn: N351bn for statutory transfers, N1.4trn for debt service, N2.6trn for
recurrent expenditure, and N1.5trn as capital expenditure.
Also, the upper legislative chamber observed that the budget was
not presented in time to the national assembly, which effected its passage.
It urged the federal government to submit the budget subsequently
in strict compliance with the Fiscal Policy Act, and advised that there should
be proper consultation between the budget office and the ministries,
departments and agencies.
The senate also asked the government to diversify its revenue
base, and to shore up capital expenditure and reduce recurrent expenditure.
Source: thecableng
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