National Assembly increases 2017 budget by N143bn

The House of Representatives on Tuesday received the report of 2017 N7.30 trillion Appropriation Bill from its Committee on Appropriation for final consideration.
The report indicated that the committee increased the budget to N7.44 trillion, representing an addition of about N143 billion to the one presented by President Muhammadu Buhari on December 14, 2016.
After the receipt of the bill, the House referred it to the Appropriation Committee on January 26, 2017, but its processing suffered delay due to the inability of other committees to tidy their reports in time.
Presenting the report at plenary, Chairman of the committee, Rep. Mustapha Dawaki, said that the committee worked with other committees in the House to arrive at the new figure for the budget.
According to the report, N434.4 billion is for statutory transfer, N1.84 trillion for debt servicing and N177.46 billion is for sinking Fund for maturing bonds.
The committee appropriated N2.99 trillion for recurrent (Non-Debt) expenditure, while N2.17 trillion was provided for contribution to the development fund for Capital Expenditure.
Also, the Senate, on Tuesday, received the report of the Joint Committee on Appropriation and Finance on the 2017 Appropriation Bill.
The report was laid at plenary by the Chairman of the Joint Committee on Appropriation, Sen. Danjuma Goje.
In his remarks, Senate President Bukola Saraki, commended the committee for a job well done.
He said the senate would ensure the passage of the bill on Thursday.
Saraki commended the committee for laying the report with details, saying it would help speed up the passage of the bill.
“On behalf of our colleagues let me congratulate  the committee.
“This is history been made, because this is the first time report of the Appropriation Bill will be laid with details.
“Because of that, by tomorrow (Wednesday) you  will get hard copies of the report, but the soft copy will be ready today.
“We will distribute them and ensure we pass the bill on Thursday,’’ he said.
The 2017 Budget proposal report was laid four days after the expiration of the 2016 fiscal year.
President Muhammadu Buhari had presented a budget proposal of N7.30 trillion for the 2017 fiscal year before a Joint Session of the National Assembly on December 14, 2016.
From details of the proposal presented by Buhari, the sum of N2.24 trillion, representing 30.7 per cent, will be committed to capital expenditure, while N2.98 trillion will go to recurrent spending.
Also, the oil benchmark price was set at $42.5 per barrel and a production estimate of 2.2 million barrels per day.
The proposal also put the aggregated revenue available to fund the budget at N4.94 tn, which is  28 per cent higher than that of 2016.