The Budget 2013 Amendment Bill sent to the National Assembly by President Goodlcuk Jonathan was passed yesterday by the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Following a deadlock on the budget as passed by the National Assembly, the President presented an amendment bill on June 27.
The bill seeks to authorise the issue from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation N4, 987, 220,425,601.
The upper chamber adopted without amendment the report of its Committee on Appropriation that restored all the deductions made by the National Assembly on the original Appropriation Bill.
Apart from the complete restoration of the personnel cost as proposed by the Presidency, the Senate also restored all the deductions made on capital projects.
The reductions restored include Abuja-Lokoja road, reduced by N4b; Kano-Maiduguri road reduced by N3.5b; dualisation of Ibadan-Ilorin section 2 reduced by N5.5b; rehabilitation of Jebba Bridge reduced by N1.25b; rehabilitation of burnt Marine Bridge and Iddo Bridge reduced by N1b and Special Intervention Fund for emergency roads and bridges cut across the country reduced by N6.28b.
Mark insisted that standing committees of the Senate must take their oversight seriously to ensure that the budget was implemented faithfully.
The House of Representatives passed the new version of the Amendment Bill of N4,987,220,425,601.
The passed bill was, however, short of N161,771,089 from the N4,987,382,196,690 trillion Amendment Bill presented by President Jonathan.
Before the consideration of the report, Chairman, House Committee on Appropriation, John Enoh (PDPD, Cross River) explained that the total figure presented in he bill was not different from what the House had earlier passed in the extant Appropriation Act 2013.
He, however, urged his colleagues to pass the bill as the Committee had done a thorough job of scrutinising the document and making inputs.
The recommendations of the report were adopted by the House.
In the passed bill, the lawmakers allocated N2,415,745,972,812 for Recurrent (non-debt) expenditure, as against contrary to N2,418,976,391,494 in the bill sent by the President.
About N1,588,578,805,197 was proposed by the President for contribution to development fund for Capital expenditure, the House passed N1,591,657,252,789.
The House also passed N388,053,200,000 for statutory transfers as against N388,063,000,000 proposed by the President; N591,764,000,000 proposed for debt services was left untouched.
The Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) got N273,522,000,000.
Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Affairs Senator Joy Emodi commended the lawmakers for passing the budget, saying it is “the triumph of constructive dialogue”.
Source: The Nation
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