A bill seeking to amend the 2022 Appropriation Act passed second reading in the Senate on Wednesday.
The bill seeks to amend the 2022 budget by making provision in the sum of N106billion for Capital expenditures and N43 billion for recurrent without increasing budget deficit.
President Muhammadu Buhari, in a letter to the National Assembly on February 10, underscored the need to remove all capital projects that were replicated in the 2022 Appropriation Act.
He disclosed that 139 out of the 254 projects in the budget totaling N13.24 billion had been identified for deletion.
The President also requested that an additional provision for N2.557 trillion naira be appropriated by the National Assembly to fund the petrol subsidy in the 2022 Budget Framework which was revised to provide fully for PMS subsidy.
He requested the National Assembly to reinstate four capital projects totaling N1.4 billion in the Executive proposal for the Federal Ministry of Water Resources and N22.0 billion cut from the provision for the Sinking Fund to retire mature loans needed to meet government’s obligations under already Issued Bonds
Leading debate on general principles of the 2022 Appropriations Act Amendment bill, Senate Leader, Yahaya Abdullahi, gave key highlights of the amendment to include eleven areas such as funding to cushion the impacts of the recent suspension of the Petroleum Motor Spirit subsidy removal.
Others are restoring the provisions made for various key projects in the 2022 budget proposal to ensure that critical projects that are key to the administration are implemented; re-instating the N25.18 billion cut from the provision for the Power Sector Reform Programme; re-instating the four Capital Projects totaling N1.42 billion in the Executive Proposal for the Federal Ministry of Water Resources; restoring the N3 billion cut from the provision made for payment of mostly long outstanding Local Contractors’ Debts, and transferring the National Assembly’s expenditures totaling N16.59 billion in the Service Wide Vote to the National Assembly Statutory Transfer provision.
The Senate Leader added that the amendment also seeks the reinstatement of the N22.0 billion cut from the provision for Sinking Fund to retire Mature Loans; reinstatement of cuts made from provisions for the recurrent spendings of Nigeria’s Foreign Missions; restoration of reductions in provisions for allowances payable to personnel of the Nigerian Navy and Police Formations and Commands.
The amendment also seeks removal of all capital projects that were replicated in the 2022 Appropriation Act following the identification of 139 out of 254 such projects totaling N3.24 billion for deletion from the budget.
President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, thereafter referred the Bill to the Committee on Appropriation for further Legislative work, with one week mandate to report back to the Senate in plenary.
Tertiary EducationMeanwhile, two bills seeking to establish the Federal College of Education Afon, Kwara State; and Alvan Ikoku Federal University of Education have also passed second reading.
The bills were sponsored by Senators Yahaya Oloriegbe (APC-Kwara) and Ezenwa Onyewuchi (PDP-Imo).
The bills after consideration were both referred by the Senate President to the Committee on Tertiary Institution and TETFUND.
The Committee was given four weeks to report back to the Senate.
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