NASS Passes 2013 Budget; Over-Shoots Jonathan’s Fiscal Recommendations …Senate Votes N4.99trn, Reps Vote N4.98trn

The two chambers of the National Assembly, Tuesday passed a budget of 4,986,202,425,601 for the 2013 fiscal year. By this, the National Assembly made good its earlier promise of passing the national budget for the year 2013 before the end of the year 2012.

This was the first time the budget left the NASS chambers before the budget year. The 4.986 trillion passed marks an increase of N62,598,425,601 from the proposal submitted by President Goodluck Jonathan.

President Jonathan had submitted a budget proposal of N4,924,604,000,000.

Breakdown of the budget as passed by the National Assembly;- N387,976,000.00 was approved for statutory transfers; N591,764,000.00 for debt service while N2,386,024,770,349 is for recurrent (non-debt) expenditure. N1,621,477,655,252 is for contribution to the development fund for capital expenditure.

A benchmark of $79 per barrel of crude oil was adopted, the executive proposal of crude oil production of 2.53million barrels per day was okayed by the National Assembly while an exchange rate of N160 to US$1 was adopted.

In his presentation, the Chairman of the Joint Committee on Appropriations and Finance on the 2013 Appropriation Bill, Senator Ahmad Maccido, pointed out that the challenge of “the conceptualisation of the budget by the executive is still a big issue that we must confront as representatives of the people. There must be a verifiable template for budgeting, especially on capital projects. If the painful sight of abandoned projects in Nigeria will be a thing of the past, then ongoing projects must be properly defined”.

Maccido complained of some irregularities in the Executive’s proposals, pointing out situations where projects not found in 2011 and 2012 budgets were fixed into 2013 as on-going projects and situations where uncompleted projects, were not included in the budgets of succeeding years. This, he said “is very misleading. In the same vein, is wasteful.”

Senator Maccido cautioned that the executive needs to be more thorough and open in compiling the budget materials, stressing that some areas of the budget were still under-funded, citing the

Public Complaints Commission and the Auditor-General’s Office.

The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, who presided over the budget passage commended the National Assembly for passing the budget timely and tasked the executives on ensuring the proper implementation of the budget.”

The Senate at plenary, approved President Jonathan’s request for $7.109 billion for funding of pipeline projects under the medium-term (2012-2014) external borrowing plan.

The projects under the borrowing plan covers projects at the federal and state levels.

While all the items listed for execution via the loans were approved, the Senate however rejected the proposal of $56.61m which is no longer required by Kaduna State for its National Urban Water Sector Reforms from the French Development

Agency.

Commenting on the early passage of the2013 budget, the Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters, Senator Joy Emordi expressed satisfaction and attributed this to the good relationship between the Legislature and the Executive

Her words, “This is the first time since 1999 that the budget of a succeeding year has been passed in a preceding year. This is traceable to the leadership shown through the president and the hard work team shown by the leadership and entire members of the National Assembly.

“The budget is the government’s most important economic tool. By the early passage of this budget, the executive and the legislature have indeed made a joint statement that they are truly partners in governance and are increasingly taking steps to place Nigeria on a path to economic growth and prosperity.”

The National Assembly has adjourned its plenary sessions till January 16, 2013 to enable members join in the festive period.

Nneka Amaechi-Nnadi

L-R: Bayelsa State Governor, Seriake Dickson, Vice-President Namadi Sambo and the new Governor of Kaduna State, Ramalan Yero, during the Service of Songs for Late Governor of Kaduna State, Patrick Yakowa, in Kaduna on Wednesday.