Abuja – The House of Representatives yesterday concluded debate on the general principles of the N7.298 trillion budget proposal during the plenary session, in which the speaker Rt Hon Yakubu Dogara urged the members who wish to contribute to the ongoing debate to register their intention.

The House of Representatives is expected to pass the 2017 Appropriation bill through second reading on Thursday and transmit it to the Appropriation Committee for further engagement with various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

In his contribution, Chika Abubakar (APC-Niger) who expressed displeasure over the spate of corruption in the public service, stressed the need for full implementation of the Public Procurement Act which puts the profit benchmark on contract at 35 percent.

Abubakar who alleged that most of the contract awarded by the MDAs have over 200 percent profit mark-up, emphasised the need for various standing committees of the House to carry out their oversight functions effectively.

The lawmaker also applauded the successes recorded by President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to increase the country’s foreign reserve and other intervention projects

On his part, Dennis Amadi (PDP-Enugu) decried the bureaucratic bottleneck in the disbursement of allocations to about 600 implementing MDAs.

While stressing the need for increase in local production of petroleum products, he urged Buhari’s administration to put necessary measures in place to organise and encourage Nigerians involved in local refining of crude oil up to 10,000 barrel per day for domestic market.

This, according to Amadi, will reduce high dependence on foreign refineries, pressure on foreign exchange demand, spate of unemployment and ensure adequate supply of diesel, kerosene and PMS across the country.

Amadi also tasked Federal Government on the need to boost local production of rice and other agricultural produces for which Nigeria has comparative advantage and invest in solid minerals, as well as encourage investment in tourism and transport sectors.

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Also speaking, Igariwey Enwo (PDP-Bayelsa) urged the House Committee on Appropriation and other sub-committees to thoroughly scrutinize the budget proposal of all the MDAs with the view to eliminate all unclear sub-heads.

In his view, Ayodele Oladimeji who emphasised the need for favourable monetary and fiscal policies, argued that the current interest rate charged by deposit banks pose great challenge to foreign and local investment.

He also harped on the need to provide enabling environment for the organised private sector to thrive, utilisation of the $29.9 billion borrowing plans for 2017-2019 for massive provision of critical infrastructure across the country.

The Ekiti lawmaker who expressed reservation over the $44.5 crude oil benchmark, noted that price of petroleum products may be increased when the international price of crude oil increases.

To this end, he called for provision of palliative measures that would cushion the effects of price increase on petroleum products in 2016 by the present administration.

While stressing the need to Taofeek Adaranijo (APC-Lagos) urged all MDAs to ensure prudent utilisation of all resources by ensuring full implementation of the 2017 budget when passed into law for the benefit of ordinary Nigerian.

He also stressed the need to ensure adequate provision of forex for manufacturers, encourage existing and intending farmers to embark on commercial and large scale agriculture as well as address the challenge confronting the Niger Delta region.

While ruling, Dogara who presided over the plenary session, assured that the debate on the general principles of the 2017 budget will continue and concluded on Thursday.