N’Assembly Increases 2018 Budget by over N500bn

                             

Almost six months after it was laid before a joint session of the National Assembly, both the Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Appropriations Tuesday laid the report of the 2018 N8.612 trillion budget at plenary, increasing the expenditure by over N500 billion to N9.120 trillion.

In the upper chamber, the document was laid by the Committee Chairman, Senator Danjuma Goje.

Senate spokesman, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, had last week said the budget report would be laid Tuesday, while it would be considered and debated on Wednesday and passed on Thursday.

Similarly, the report was laid in the lower chamber by the Chairman, House Committee on Appropriations, Hon. Mustapha Bala Madaki.

The Deputy Speaker, Hon. Yussuff Lasun, who presided over the plenary, later announced that the budget will be considered earlier Tuesday and probably passed later in the afternoon.

He added that in the event that the House is unable to conclude work on the document on Wednesday, it will then be passed Thursday.

However, a breakdown of the new estimates showed that out of a total sum of N9,120,334,988,225, the sum of N530,421,368,624 is earmarked for Statutory Transfers, while the sum of N2,203,835,365,699 is for Debt Service of which the sum of N190,000,000,000 is for Sinking Fund for maturing loans as well as N3,516,477,902,077 for Recurrent (Non-Debt) Expenditure.

The sum of N2,869,600,351,825 is set aside as contribution to the Development Fund for Capital Expenditure (Exclusive of Capital Expenditure in Statutory Transfers) for the year ending on the 31st December, 2018.