Why Senate reduced size of budget by N17bn

dimeji akinloye

March 23, 2016 6:07 PM

The capital expenditure portion of the budget to the tune of N1.587trillion and the recurrent expenditure of N2.646.3trn was approved by the lawmakers

Bukola Saraki

The 2016

President Muhammadu Buhari presented the document to the federal parliament with the initial figure of N6.077trillion on December 23, 2015.

The Statutory transfers of N351.37bn, the Debt Service of N1.475.3trn, and Fiscal deficit of N2.2trn were also approved.

The oil benchmark of $38; Crude production of 2.2000m barrel per day and the exchange rate of N197 to $1 for the implementation of the budget was also adopted.

On how the N17billion came about, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Danjuma Goje, said the 2016 budget contained several errors of omissions, especially particularly in the area of personnel cost.

READ: Nigerians react to passing of 2016 budget by NASS

In view of this, Goje said his committee had to fill some of the gaps that might resort to serious concerns later.

Now that the budget has been passed, the onus now rests with the President to sign it to law before implementation can kick off.

dimeji akinloye