Nigeria’s budget for debt service has been increased from N2.4trillion to N2.9 trillion, Daily Trust reports.
The revised 2020 budget, which was passed for second reading after an exhaustive debate at the Senate on Thursday, also had N4, 928, 525, 467, 849 for Recurrent (Non-Debt Expenditure) while N398, 505, 979, 362 is for Statutory Transfers.
The sum of N2, 230, 912, 585, 842 was, however, estimated as a contribution to the development fund for capital expenditure for the year ending on the 31st day of December 2020.
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The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, had, two weeks ago, said that as the government cut the size of the budget, new expenditures were also added to enable it adequately respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The revised budget estimate now stands at N10, 509, 654, 033, 054 as against the earlier passed Appropriation Act in the sum of N10, 594, 362, 364, 830.
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The finance minister had said that while the federal government will fund the budget by N5.158 trillion, the deficit from N5.365 trillion will be financed by both domestic and foreign borrowing.
During the debate on Thursday, some senators expressed concern over the country’s over-reliance on oil revenue and loans to fund budgets.
After debate, the revised fiscal document was referred to the Senate Committee on Appropriations, which was asked to report back June 2.
