Reps to slash NEDC, UBEC, NASENI budgets

The House of Representatives says the 2022 budgets of the North East Development Commission (NEDC), the Universal Basic Commission (UBEC) and the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) will be slashed to accommodate President Muhammadu Buhari’s request for amendments of the Appropriation Act to the tune of N150bn.

The House spokesperson, Benjamin Kalu, told reporters in Abuja Thursday said the supplementary budget sent to the National Assembly by the president was a request for amendment which would result in adjustments to some provisions of the 2022 Appropriations Act.

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“Mr President is saying, adjust. Due to current realities, adjust one or two things within the budget to the tune of N150bn.

“Many of you’ve been calling me and asking me which agencies would be affected by this adjustments? The adjustments will lead to the reduction in some of the statutory transfers.

“We’re talking about the North East Development Commission’s budget to be reduced. We have UBEC, we’ll have a little deduction, the Basic Health Care Fund will have some deductions, then NASENI. These are some of the ones that are going to receive some deductions, among others”.

Kalu said the House was also working on the provision for subsidy as proposed by Buhari.

He added: “And there are also questions as regards subsidy and budget. The timing of the analysis of the ad-hoc committee that has been charged with the responsibility of conducting an investigation into the call to establish the exact amount we’re spending on subsidy as well as the exact amount we’re consuming on PMS.

“I spoke to the chairman, Finance, before I came in here, and also the chairman, Appropriations. We had a meeting, and I can assure you that the call for the establishment of these amount we’re spending on the subsidy as well as the PMS is a good call.

“But is it going to delay the amendment? No. It’ll not delay the amendment because there’s a strategy put in place to receive the technical report from the technical committee that’ll be engaging with the NNPC to look at the numbers to give an idea on what we’ve in the ongoing amendment of the budget”.