…as it adjourns plenary to January 26th, 2021
Senate has passed the budget appropriation of over thirteen point five trillion naira (13.5) for the 2021 fiscal year.
The Senate President, Senator Ahmad Lawan gave the highlights of the bill as follows:
Statutory expenditure was put at about four hundred and ninety six billion naira, while recurrent was over five trillion naira.
Capital expenditure was put at about four trillion naira while debt servecing was over three trillion naira.
In an extraordinary sitting presided over by the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan said the budget was presented in the joint sitting of the National Assembly on the 8th October, 2020 by President Muhammadu Buhari.
According to Senator Ahmad Lawan, the budget contained, aggregate expenditure, statutory transfers, recurrent expenditure, capital expenditure, debt servicing and GDP Growth Rate.
He noted that the committee while processing the bill observed that the Covid-19 pandemic has negatively affected every aspect of revenue accruable to the government.
Senator Ahmad Lawan further explained that the committee also discovered that crude oil price has gone up to 50 dollar per barrel.
This according to him called for review of the budget to allow for the reflection of the economy in order to accelerate the process of taking out economy from its current state of recession.
Lawan also pointed out that both the 2020 and the 2021 budget will run concurrently till March 31st, 2021 when the 2020 budget will elapse. This according to him is to ensure that the 2020 budget is properly utilized.
The Senate President also disclosed that, the Senate is expecting a supplementary budget from the executive to enable the Ministry of health and it’s relevant agencies to purchase the Covid-19 vaccines.
He noted that this is necessary to make adequate logistic for the transportation and storage of the vaccines.
The Senate President Ahmad Lawan commended his colleagues for the cooperation and relentless efforts it put in place for the passage of the 2021 budget. He further wished them a happy Christmas and a prosperous New year.
The Senate therefore adjourns plenary till January 26th, 2021.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives, on Monday, also passed the 2021 budget of N13.588 trillion, which shown an increase of over N500 billion above the N13.08 trillion budget proposal presented by the President in October this year.
Speaking immediately after the legislative exercise, the Speaker, Rt., Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila said that the bill was passed in good time so as to achieve the January to December budget cycle.
The House also approved $40 per barrel for the price of crude oil, while pegged the official exchange rate at N379 to a dollar.
In passing the budget, the House directed the Accountant-General of the Federation to immediately maintain a separate record for the documentation of Revenue accruing to the Consolidated Revenue Fund in excess of oil price benchmark adopted in this Budget.
The breakdown of the proposed Expenditure for the year as approved by the House, showed that the sums of N496.259 billion is for statutory transfer; N3.324 trillion is for Recurrent Expenditure; N5.642 trillion is for Debt Service while N4.125 trillion is for Capital Expenditure.
President Muhammadu Buhari had on October 14, 2020, presented a budget proposal of N13.08 trillion to the joint session of the National Assembly, out of which N3.85 trillion was for capital projects in 2021, including; N1.80 trillion for MDAs’ capital expenditure; N745 billion for Capital Supplementation.
Others were N355 billion for Grants and Aid-funded projects; N20 billion for the Family Homes Fund; N25 billion for the Nigeria Youth Investment Fund; N336 billion for 60 Government-Owned Enterprises; N247 billion for capital component of Statutory Transfers; and N710 billion for projects funded by Multi-lateral and Bi-lateral loans.
