Presidency slashes National Assembly budget by N 112bn

President Goodluck Jonathan has signed the 2011 Appropriation Bill into law.





But the amount to be spent in this fiscal year is N4.407,052,200,582 trillion, down from the N4.971 trillion passed by the National Assembly.

The President slashed N464 billion from the amount passed by the National Assembly.
Jonathan also reduced the National Assembly budget to N120 billion from N232 billion.
House of Representatives Speaker Dimeji Bankole, announced the signing of the budget in its reduced form by the President during yesterday’s plenary session.
But he did not elaborate.

Bankole also read an Appropriation Amendment Bill which he urged the House to pass.
The 2011 budget passed by the National Assembly was earlier described as "not implementable" by the Minister of Finance, Mr. Olusegun Aganga.

The situation almost degenerated to a budget row between the Presidency and the National Assembly.
However, a source said Jonathan and the leadership of the National Assembly struck a deal at the weekend which made him to sign the budget and immediately forwarded the Appropriation Amendment Bill to the lawmakers.

The House suspended its relevant Orders so as to give the money bill which passed first and second reading accelerated treatment.
This may not be unconnected with the financial crisis the House is facing in recent times.
The National Assembly budget, which the lawmakers raised to N232 billion, was reduced to N120 billion, a reduction of N112 billion.

Jonathan had in the original budget pegged the National Assembly’s budget at N111.244 billion but the lawmakers increased it to N232 billion. 

Jonathan had last December presented a budget proposal of N4.226 trillion to the National Assembly based on a benchmark of $65 per barrel, an expected crude oil production of 2.3mbpd and an exchange rate of N150 to a dollar.

But the parliamentarians raised the figure by N745 billion from N4.226 trillion to N4.971 trillion. The lawmakers also raised the benchmark from $65 to $75pb of crude oil.

The National Assembly increased the N1.16 trillion proposed by the executive as capital expenditure to N1.7 trillion, injecting figures for constituency projects.

The Appropriation Amendment Bill reads: "a Bill for an Act to authorize the issue from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation the total sum of N4,407,052,300,582 only of which, N387,824,288,743 only is for statutory transfers, N495,096,682,115 only is for debt service, N2,401,330,677,943, only is for recurrent (Non Debt) expenditure while the balance of N1,122,800,651,781 only is for contribution to the development fund for capital expenditure for the year ending on the 31st December, 2011."

Some highlights of the amendment include: National Judicial Council N95bn; Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) N56.076bn; Universal Basic Education N64.567billion; National Assembly N120bn; Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) N52.180bn; Defence, Ministry of Defence, Army, Air Force, Navy N291.692bn.

After reading the covering letter of the Money Bill, Bankole mandated the Chairman, House Committee on Rules and Business, Ita Enang, to print a supplementary Order paper to enable the House consider the bill.
House Leader Tunde Akogun said the bill was straight forward as members already knew its importance.
He urged the House to give the bill expeditious treatment.

Chairman House Committee on Finance John Enoh said there was no disagreement on the oil benchmark of $75 per barrel.
He urged the House to pass the Bill in the interest of the nation.
The Chairman, House Committee on Appropriation, Ayo Adeseun, said the budget had been a subject of discussion for some weeks.

He said he had no problem supporting the passage of the Bill "so that the nation can move forward."
The House later referred the bill to its Joint Committee on Appropriation and Finance.

As the bill was being read on the floor of the House, President of the Senate David Mark also read it on the floor of the Senate.

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