Oscarline Onwuemenyi
16 May 2018, Sweetcrude, Abuja – The National Assembly disclosed on Tuesday that it has added over N500 billion to the to the N8.612 trillion 2018 Budget presented by President Muhammadu Buhari to bring the total to around N9.120 trillion.
Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari presented the draft copy of the N8.612 trillion 2018 budget estimates to a joint session of the National Assembly on November 7, 2017.
This mark-up was revealed in a report of the resolution of the Senate Committee on Appropriations was laid by the chairman, Senator Danjuma Goje, and was subsequently seconded by the chairman, Senate Committee on Public Accounts, Senator Matthew Urhoghide.
The Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, stated last week after a meeting with the president that the budget would be passed this week, just as moves to do that is largely believed by concerned Nigerians to have arisen as a result of May 31 set as the deadline for a lifespan of the N7.444 trillion 2017 budget.
The six months the 2018 budget estimates has spent in the National Assembly has been the longest period for consideration of an appropriation bill so far since the year 2000 when a full-fledged yearly budget was first presented to it.
According to the committee report, the National Assembly has jerked up the 2018 budget to N9.120 trillion, saying that the details of the budget were listed on the order paper.
The report further contained that the breakdown of the budget, which was laid before both chambers on Tuesday, showed that the sum of N530,421,368,624 is for statutory transfer while N2,203,835,365,699 is for debt service.
It also added that the sum of N199 billion is for sinking fund for maturing loans; N3,516,477,902,077 is for recurrent (non debt) expenditure while N2,869,600,351,825 is for development fund capital expenditure.
