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The Senate passed the report of the Joint Committee
on the 2009 budget on Wednesday after it was
presented by Senator Iyiola Omisore ,Chairman of the
Joint Committee on the 2009 Appropriation Bill.
Omisore presented the Committee’s report which was
adopted by the Senate during plenary.
While presenting the report Omisore noted that “The
Senate will recall that the President,
Commander-in-Chief, Federal Republic of Nigeria
presented the 2009 Budget proposal with the Bill
attached to it
in the sum of N2.8705 Trillion to the National
Assembly for consideration and passage into law.
Thereafter, the Executive made additional requests/
adjustments of about N85 billion (amounting to
N2.955 trillion) including statutory
transfers/arrears to Niger Delta Development
Commission. The estimation of the revenues and the
expenditure for the fiscal year 2009 was passed by
the Senate and the House of Representatives in
December 2008 and January 2009 respectively.”
Omisore on Wednesday noted that the Statutory
Transfers were reviewed upwards in line with the
increased spending since the allocations to
Universal Basic Education and Niger Delta
Development Commissions are based on percentage to
total spending.
The Senate subsequently considered and passed the
report of the Joint Finance Committee on the 2009
budget. Among the highlights of the committee’s
report include an upward review of the 2009 budget
from the initial N2. 8705 Trillion Proposed by the
Executive to N3.1 trillion.
Thus, the Federal Government is authorized to order
the release of N3.1 trillion from the Consolidated
Revenue Fund of the Federation for the 2009 fiscal
year. The bill titled “A Bill for an Act to
authorize the issue of N 3, 101,813,750,626 from the
Consolidated Revenue Fund for 2009.”
Out of this amount, N168,620,847,114 only is for
Statutory Transfers, N283,649,892,795 is for Debt
Service, N1, 627, 287, 216,097 only, is for
Recurrent (Non-Debt) Expenditure while the balance
of N1, 022,255, 794,620 only, is for contribution to
the Development Fund for Capital expenditure.
Omisore explained that the Statutory Transfers were
reviewed upwards in line with the increased spending
since the allocations to Universal Basic Education
and Niger Delta Development Commissions are based on
percentage to total spending.
Other areas harmonized included: Statutory
Transfers. While the Senate earlier passed
N165,719,910,696, the House of Representatives
passed N165,719,910,696 the joint committee however
approved N168,620,847,114. Debt Service: The Senate
passed N283, 649,892,795 the House of
Representatives also passed the same figure but the
Joint Committee approved the same figure.
Under Recurrent (Non Debt) Expenditure, the Senate
passed N1,709,388,028,945 while the House passed
N1,617,934, 121,659 the Joint Committee approved an
increase of the sum to N1,627,287,216,097. The
Capital Expenditure approved by the Senate was N890,
136,302, 767 while the House approved N1,
019,742,361,943, the Joint Committee approved
N1,022,255,794,620.
Total expenditure earlier approved by the Senate
stood at N3.048 trillion while the House approved
N3.087. The joint Committee however increased the
amount to N3.101 trillion. The Federal Government
is proposing to spend N138.9 billion on Agriculture
and Water Resources while power is to gulp N94.6
billion. However, there are indications that the
last is yet to be heard about the budget.
It was learnt that there was disagreement among
lawmakers in the area of constituency projects and
some yet to be dfined details of the budget. Members
of the House insisted on a larger chunk of what was
appropriated. The location of projects in
constituencies was another bone of contention |
