The National Assembly yesterday passed a revised budget of N17.3 trillion for the 2022 fiscal year with the figure representing an increase of N192.5 billion from the N17.1tr approved last December.
The passage followed the consideration of a bill to amend the 2022 Appropriations Act transmitted to the National Assembly on 10th February 2022, by President Muhammadu Buhari.
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Out of the N17.3tr passed, recurrent expenditure was increased by N198.7bn to N7.1tr while capital expenditure remained at N5.4tr. N817.6bn is for Statutory Transfer and N3.97 is for Debt Service.
The parliament also approved revised 2022 fiscal framework, raising the oil benchmark to US$73 as proposed by President Buhari.
It okayed oil production volume of 1.600 million per day; Petroleum Motor Spirit (PMS) subsidy of N4.00 trillion (NGN); and a cut in the provision for Federally funded upstream projects being implemented by N200 billion from N352.80.
The two chamber also approved the fiscal deficit of N7.35 trillion, an increase of N965.42 billion, representing 3.99% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The incremental deficit, it said, would be financed by new borrowings from the domestic market.
The lawmakers also raised the budget of the National Assembly and its agencies to N153 billion from the earlier N139 billion.
While approving an increase in the Federal Government Independent Revenue of N400 billion, the chambers gave its nod for an additional provision of N182.4 billion to cater for the needs of the Nigeria Police Force.
It approved net reductions in Statutory Transfers by N66.07 billion.
President Buhari had, in February, requested the National Assembly, to amend the 2022 Appropriations Act to accommodate additional fund for subsidy payments.
Senator Olubunmi Adetunmbi (Ekiti North), said the federal government and security agencies owe it as a duty to stop the stealing of our common wealth.
The Senate Leader, Yahaya Abdullahi, who spoke along the same lines as Adetunmbi, said the country should be in a state of mourning over what is currently happening to it.
He attributed the failure of security agencies to protect oil assets as a major reason for the decline of the economy.
Senate President Ahmad Lawan, in his remarks, called on the Federal Government to take “radical” steps towards stopping the theft of crude oil by economic saboteurs.
“This (crude theft) is not something to play politics with, and I don’t think the answers are going to be easy to come by.”
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