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| Bukola Saraki, Senate President |
After what seemed like eternity, the Nigerian Senate, today, passed the 2016 budget. The budget has been enmeshed in controversies, ranging from padding of figures, denial of figures by ministers, heads of parastatals and agencies, and the political dog fight that has surrounded the trial (or commencement of it) of the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, at the Conde of Conduct Bureau.
Highlights of the passed appropriation bill include the reduction of the budget size from the initial N6.077trn presented to the federal parliament by President Muhammadu Buhari on December 23, 2015, to N6.060trn, a difference of N17bn.
The federal lawmakers approved the N1.587trn as the capital expenditure portion of the budget and the recurrent expenditure of N2.646.3trn.
They also approved N351.37bn as Statutory transfers, N1.475.3trn for Debt Service, and N2.2trn for Fiscal deficit.
The federal parliamentarians also adopted the oil benchmark of $38; Crude production of 2.2000m barrel per day and the exchange rate of N197 to $1 for the implementation of the budget.
Explaining how the difference of N17bn was identified, Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Danjuma Goje, admitted that the 2016 budget proposal contained a number of errors of omissions, particularly in the area of personnel cost.
He said his committee therefore filled some of the gaps would could still raise serious concerns in the course of the year because there were many outstanding cases.
Senate President, Bukola Saraki, explained after the formal passage of the appropriation bill that his colleagues had done his part and requested the president to do the needful by signing it to law for immediate implementation.
It is now left to be seen if this passage and the subsequent budget implementation will kick start an economy that has seen Nigerians wail and groan in the past 9 months due to paucity of funds and very high cost of commodities.
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PLEASE BE POLITE