The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed the 2023 appropriation bill at N21.83 trillion, raising it from the proposed N20.51 trillion.
This shows an increase of N1.32 trillion from what was originally proposed by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Also on Wednesday, the senate and the house passed the 2022 supplementary budget of N819.5 billion.
The passage of the budget followed the consideration and adoption of the report presented to the lawmakers at the plenary by the chairman, house committee on appropriation, Mr. Aliyu Betara.
A breakdown of the budget indicated an allocation of N967.5 billion for statutory transfers, N6.6 trillion for debt service, N8.3 trillion for recurrent expenditure, and N5.9 trillion for capital expenditure for the year ending 31st day of December, 2023.
In a related development the lawmakers passed the finance bill, 2022 meant to provide support for the funding of the 2023 budget.
The passage of the bill with proposed amendments fiscal laws such as capital gains tax, company income tax, customs excise tariff Act, Federal Inland Revenue Service Act, personal income tax and stamp duties act followed the consideration and adoption of the report on it presented by the deputy chairman committee on finance, Mr. Saidu Abdullahi at the plenary.
Also, the House considered and passed the sum of N262, 959,510,955 as the budget for Federal Inland Revenue (FIRS) in the fiscal year 2023.
The approval followed the consideration and adoption of report presented by Abdullahi.
Presenting the report, the legislator said the sum of N126,070,912,538 was for personnel cost; N96,061,565,065 for overhead cost and N40,827,033,352 for capital expenditure for the service year ending December 2023.
He said the approval was necessary to return the service to the January to December budget cycle.
Similarly, the house passed a supplementary budget of N819.5 billion for 2022.
The approval of the budget followed the adoption of report presented by Betara.
Presenting the report, Betara explained that the total sum of N819, 536,937,813 was for the federal ministry of agriculture and rural development which was allocated N69,247,175,770; federal ministry of works and housing, N704,789,762,043; Federal Capital Territory, N30,000,000,000 and federal ministry of water resources, N15,500,000,000.
For its part, the senate passed the N819 billion supplementary budget.
Presenting the report at the plenary on Wednesday, the chairman, senate committee on appropriation, Mr. Jibrin Barau, said the fund was meant to cushion the effects of the recent floods and complete some projects that have reached 85 percent completion.
“This will make available funds to cushion the 2022 flood effects and completion of critical projects that have reached 85 percent completion,” the chairman said.
The senate’s decision to approve the supplementary budget followed a request by President Muhammadu Buhari last week wherein he stated that the supplementary budget would be financed through additional domestic borrowings which would invariably raise the budget deficit for 2022 to N8.17 trillion.
“The year 2022 has witnessed the worst flood incidents in recent history which has caused massive destruction to farmlands at the point close to harvest season. This may compound the situation of food security and nutrition in this country.
“The flood also devastated the road infrastructure across the 36 states and the FCT, [and] has affected sections of major roads and bridges nationwide that are critical to the movement of goods and services.
“The water sector was also affected by the flood and there is a need to complete some ongoing critical projects that have achieved about 85 project completion,” he said while making the request.
