The senate yesterday passed the 2024 national budget totalling N28.77 trillion after it was read for the third time.
The bill was passed after the lawmakers had considered and approved the report of the joint committee on appropriation.
The budget is an increase by over N1.2 trillion from the N27.5 trillion appropriation which President Bola Tinubu submitted to the joint sitting of the national assembly on November 29.
The senate pegged the benchmark of oil price at $77.96 per barrel of crude oil to reflect the current market values of the product in the international market.
It also approved the oil production rate of 1.78 million barrels per day and the exchange rate of N800 to a US dollar.
The breakdown of budget is as follows: aggregate expenditure, N28,777,404,073,861; statutory transfers, N1,742,786,788,150; recurrent expenditure, N8,768,513,380,852; capital expenditure, N9,995,143,298,028, and GDP, 3.88 per cent.
Presenting the report of the senate committee on appropriation, chairman of the committee, Mr Olamilekan Adeola, said most of the sub committees during budget defence complained of inadequate funds and decline in budgetary allocation to ministries, departments and agencies under their purview in addition to the continuous devalue of naira.
He further said the executive forwarded a request for additional funding and some items of expenditure to the committees which were not included in the bill the president had submitted.
To accommodate the requests, the Adeola said the committee made adjustments in foreign exchange differential, government owned enterprises revenue, personnel reduction, service wide vote wage adjustment, and a reduction from service wide.
He recommended that N1.7 trillion be approved for statutory transfers and N8 2 trillion be approved for Debt service.
The committee chairman also recommended that N8.7 trillion be approved as recurrent (non-debt) expenditure and N9.9 trillion be approved as capital expenditure.
The senate president, Mr Godswill Akpabio, announced the passage of the budget after the majority of the lawmakers supported it through a voice vote.
