The Senate yesterday concurred
with the House of Representatives
by appropriating N4,
493 , 363 , 957 , 158 as the budget for
the 2015 fiscal year .
This is coming even as the
lawmakers asked the President-
elect , General Muhammadu
Buhari , to send the National
Assembly a supplementary budget
that would take care of glaring
shortcomings in the Appropriation
Act
Appropriation Committee Chairman
Senator Ahmed Maccido presented
the recommendations of his
committee and the Committee on
Finance on the 2015 Appropriation
Bill.
Like the budget passed by the
House of Representatives , no
appropriation was made for fuel
subsidy .
Some said the implication was that
fuel subsidy had been tactically
stopped . Others hinted that with
the fall in oil prices in the
international market, fuel subsidy
should also be affected.
Maccido noted in his submission
that given that due consideration
had been given to the preparation
of the 2015 Appropriation Bill, the
joint committee recommended
that the Senate should approve
the Bill for an Act to authorise the
issue from the consolidated
revenue fund of the federation the
total sum of N4 , 493 , 363 , 957 , 158
only for the year ending 31
December this year .
Out of the amount,
N 375 , 616 , 000 , 000 is for statutory
transfers ; N 953 , 620 , 000 , 000 for
debt service; N2 , 607 , 132 , 491 , 708
for recurrent ( non debt )
expenditure while the balance of
N 556 , 995 , 465 , 449 inclusive of
N 144 , 420 , 000 , 000 in statutory
transfer is for contribution to the
Development Fund for Capital
Expenditure for the year ending
31 st December , this year.
Maccido explained that Subsidy
Reinvestment Programme (SURE -
P ) component of the budget to the
tune of N21 , 030 , 000 , 000 did not
form part of the aggregate budget
figure of N 4, 425 , 930 , 000 , 000 .
He said the amount had however
been captured in the final
compilation of the Bill having been
submitted for the approval of the
National Assembly .
Maccido also said in preparing
this year ’s budget, the committee
adopted a benchmark price of $ 53
per barrel of crude oil on the
recommendation of the Conference
Committee on Medium Term
Expenditure Framework / Fiscal
Strategy Paper ( MTEF / FSP ).
He said the committee also
adopted the executive proposal of
crude oil production of 2.2782
million barrel per day (mbpd ) and
the exchange rate of N 190 to $ 1.
Vice Chairman , Senate Committee
on Interior, Senator Olubunmi
Adetunmbi who spoke to our
reporter on the budget said there
would be need to realign the
budget to fit into the priorities of
the incoming administration .
He said the realignment would
naturally be in form of
supplementary budget for
necessary amendment
He said : “ The budget is staggering
into two successive
administrations coming from
different political parties.
“ So it is normal that with the kick-
off of the new administration , one
would expect that the new
administration look into the
budget to see how it fits into his
( Buhari ’s) own priorities.
