The National Assembly Wednesday passed the 2023 Appropriation Bill to the tune of N21, 827,188,747, 391 as the national budget as the aggregate expenditure for the fiscal year.
The approved budget was jerked by N1.31 trillion which was moved from the initial N20.1 trillion to N21.8 trillion.
Okay.ng recalls that President Muhammadu Buhari had on Friday, October 7th 2022 proposed and laid a N20.51 trillion Appropriation bill for consideration by both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
The passage of the appropriation bill was sequel to the consideration and approval of the report of the Senator Jibrin Barau, APC, Kano North led Senate Committee on Appropriations and the House Committee on Appropriation presented by the chairman, Hon. Aliyu Betara.
The Appropriation Bill was after the clause by clause consideration of the report as it was then read the third time and passed after the Senate and House of Representatives went into the Committee of Supply.
Out of the total sum, N967.48 billion was earmarked for Statutory Transfers, N6.55 trillion was for debt servicing; N8.32 trillion was for recurrent (non-debt) expenditure while the sum of N5.97 trillion was for capital expenditure for the year ending 31st day of December, 2023.
In the passed budget, Benchmark Price of Crude Oil is pegged at $75 USD Per Barrel; Crude Oil Production at 1.69 mbpd; Exchange Rate at N435 57/US$; Gross Domestic Production (GDP) Growth Rate at 3.75percent and Inflation Rate at 17.16% .
In the passed budget, from the statutory transfers, the National Judicial Council takes N165 billion; Niger-Delta Development Commission gets N119.93 billion, Universal Basic Education N103.28 billion; Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) N173.63 billion; National Human Right Commission
N4.5 billion; North East Development Commission, N59.03 billion; Basic Health Care Fund N51.64 billion and National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) N51.64 billion.
Also under the Statutory Transfers, the National Assembly Severance/Inauguration of outgoing and incoming 9th and 10th Assembly (Legislators and Legislative Aides) is allocated N30.17 billion, National Assembly Office gulps N30.49 billion; Senate N33.26 billion, House of Representatives N51.99 billion; National Assembly Service Commission N10.55 billion; National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) N7.41billion and Service Wide Vote N671.3 million.
Further breakdown shows that Office of Retired Clerks and Permanent Secretaries take N1.05 billion, National Assembly Library Building N4.25 billion; Constitution Review N850 million; Completion of NILDS headquarters N2.5 billion; Construction of National Assembly Service Commission Building
N10 billion and Public Complaints Commission, N10.69 billion.
Similarly, the debt service, domestic debts (including Ways and Means) got N4.49 trillion; foreign debts was allocated N1.81 trillion; sinking fund to retire maturing loans takes N247.72 billion.
Under recurrent expenditure (Non-debt) the presidency was allocated N76.40 billion, defence got N1.09 trillion, Ministry of foreign affairs N93.68 billion, Federal ministry of information & culture N59.82 billion; interior N278.69 billion; Police Affairs N777.40 billion; communications and digital economy N32.13 billion; National Security Adviser N172.60 billion and Secretary to the Government of the Federation takes N70.08 billion.
For recurrent expenditure, the Federal Ministry of Special Duties & Inter-Governmental Affairs gets N4.79 billion; Agriculture and Rural Development
N85.41 billion; Finance, Budget and National Planning N29.99 billion; Industry, Trade and Investment N16.82 billion; Labour and Employment N15.52 billion, Science, Technology and Innovation N52.33 billion; Transport N18.01 billion; Aviation N9.43 billion; Petroleum Resources N33.15 billion and Works and Housing N34.98 billion.
For the capital expenditure, Presidency is allocated N20.11 billion, defence gets N285 billion, Foreign Affairs N5.85 billion; Information & Culture N11.87 billion; Interior N45.62 billion; Police N60.64 billion; National Security Adviser
N70.33 billion; Agriculture and Rural Development N248.35 billion, Finance, Budget and National Planning N166.74 billion.
Further breakdown of the capital expenditure indicated that Science, Technology and Innovation is allocated N132.57 billion; Transport
N74.26 billion; Aviation N49.41 billion; Power N56.14 billion; Works and Housing N398.27 billion; Federal Capital Territory Administration.
N15.47 billion; Education
N153.73 billion; Health N134.90 billion and Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development N32.05 billion.
In a related development the National Assembly yesterday passed the Finance bill, 2022 designed 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, Hon. Saidu Abdullahi at the plenary.
Also, the National Assembly considered and passed the sum of N262, 959,510,955 as the budget for Federal Inland Revenue (FIRS) in the fiscal year 2023.
