House of Reps increases 2015 budget by N134bn

The House of Representatives has increased the 2015 budget by N134.5bn.

The original bill sent by President Goodluck Jonathan to the House specified a sum of N4.357tn but was increased to N4.493tn by the Reps.

The 2015 appropriation bill with the increased figure was passed on Thursday, April 23, 2015, with just about a month left before the Jonathan administration bows out.

In defending the action however, House spokesperson, Zakari Mohammed, said that the legislators were merely doing their duty.

“The budget is a guiding financial document. For us as a House, we are on course. It is left to the in-coming government to work with or amend it. Any further comments on this will be hasty,” he said.

The increment from the original amount (N425,425,930,000) to the final one(N4,493,363,957,158) affected only the statutory transfers, which were raised from N366.280bn to N375.616bn.