2023 budget: Executive transmitted ‘problematic’ estimates — Lawan

The National Assembly has postponed the passage of the 2023 Appropriation Bill, earlier scheduled for yesterday till next Wednesday, December 28.

Speaking before adjourning plenary on Thursday, Senate President Ahmad Lawan said the delay in the passage was due to challenges in cleaning the budget, which he said was transmitted to the parliament with some problems.

President Muhammadu Buhari had on October 7 presented the 2023 budget of N20.5trn to a joint session of the National Assembly.

Lawan said the appropriations committees in both the Senate and House of Representatives only concluded the cleaning process on Wednesday and could not package the report for consideration and passage on Thursday.

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Lawan said, “Consequently we can only receive the report and consider it on Wednesday, the 28th, that’s the earliest. That is next week.

“All the appropriations since 2019 till date had been passed before the end of the year. I believe this will be one of the legacies of the 9th National Assembly. 

“By the grace of God on the 28th of this month, the Senate and the House will all come back to proceed and consider the budget report from our committees.”