The Senate and House of Representatives yesterday passed N574 billion 2015 supplementary budget sent to it by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The figure consisted of the earlier N465.5 billion budget including N413 billion subsidy covering the last quarter of 2014 and the period January to September 2015 sent by the president last week and another N108 billion for the period of October to December this year sent to the National Assembly last Monday.
This brought the entire subsidy approved by the Senate yesterday to N522.258 billion.
The budget was passed after the adoption of the report of the Senate Committee on Appropriation and Finance presented by its Chairman, Senator Danjuma Goje.
While reading the report, Goje explained that whereas the earlier supplementary budget sent by the executive consisted of N413 billion subsidy, “there is need to adjust the proposed amendment to the 2015 fiscal framework to capture the additional funding need of N108, 895, 800,000 only for fuel subsidy.”
Goje further disclosed that with the authorisation of the government by the National Assembly to draw N574, 532,726,857 from the nation’s consolidated revenue fund, the total budget for 2015 including the original N4.493 trillion budget for the fiscal year approved at the beginning of the year now amounts to N5,067,896 trillion.
He appealed to his colleagues to approve the committee’s decision to include additional N108 billion that was not initially contained in the document submitted to it last week by the president because of its importance.
Breakdown of the budget as approved by the Senate included N522.258 billion; N29.958 billion for operation Zaman Lafiya, a programme meant for pursuit of peace in the North-east; N5 billion victim support fund meant for the welfare of victims of Boko Haram insurgency in the North-east; 10.618 billion for severance allowances for former and new legislators as well as legislative aides and N1.5 billion approved for Nigeria’s participation in All Africa Games qualification for Rio 2916 Olympic Games.
Before the budget was passed, Senate Leader, Ali Ndume, lamented that the Senate was left without option to approve subsidy of that magnitude, regretting that in the last three years, subsidy for petrol has continued to escalate, a situation he attributed to “lots of corruption” in the subsidy regime.
He said the Senate was forced to approve the subsidy not necessarily because it believed in it but as a matter of necessity.
In his contribution, the Minority Leader, Senator Godwill Akpabio, regretted that the change promised by the All Progressives Congress (APC) federal government had not been seen but expressed hopes that the change might begin to manifest in 2016.
While advocating zero subsidy regime, Akpabio said it was now the responsibility of the entire Nigerians to determine the extent of fraud which characterises the subsidy scheme as he echoed Ndume that relevant government agencies should be held accountable for how the subsidy is spent.
In his remark, Senate President, Bukola Saraki, said the budget was passed from two perspectives - first, in consideration of the request by the president and secondly as an expression of concern for the plight of the masses.
He warned ministries and agencies saddled with the disbursement of the approved subsidy fund to do it with prudence with a threat to sanction anyone found culpable in its misappropriation. Consequently, he mandated the committees on Appropriation, Finance, Drugs and Narcotics to monitor and ensure diligent use of the money.
While noting that the total subsidy figure was high, Saraki described the subsidy claim as nothing but blackmail by oil marketers and appealed to Nigerians to collectively rise against it.
While answering questions from journalists later, Goje denied knowledge of the claim by Senator Akpan Bassey that the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) had been deducting subsidy at source for 48 per cent of fuel that it imports.
In the House of Representatives, the Chairman of the Committee on Appropriation, Hon. Jibrin Abdulmumim, while presenting the report for the consideration, noted that the supplementary bill contained N413.36billion outstanding subsidy claim to cover only the period from July to September 2015 without consideration for October to December 2015 for which N108.8 billion is required. He added that the budget would be funded through borrowing and the total aggregate expenditure for the fiscal year 2015 is now N5.069 trillion.
“Given the incidental nature of some of the budget issues that arose from our work, which could not be properly studied within the scope of our work, they will be handed to the appropriate standing committees which have oversight responsibilities on the agencies concerned; particularly with the advent of the 2016 budget process,” he said.
The report was signed by Abdulmumim; the Chairman of the Committee on Finance, Hon. Babangida Ibrahim, and his Aids, Loans and Debt Management counterpart, Hon. Ajayi Adeyinka.
The Minority Leader, Hon. Leo Ogor, expressed concern at the additional N109 billion to the N413 billion earlier requested by the president.
He noted that the report did not contain the breakdown for the expenditure of the subsidy funds.
“It is not enough that we pass the supplementary bill but there is a need to know who is getting what as there were claims that some have been paid. In view of this there is need for full investigation to know the beneficiaries of the subsidy so that we do not just approve for the sake of it,” he said.
Ruling,the Speaker, Hon. Yakubu Dogara said the implementation of subsidy component of the budget must be verified by Committees on Appropriation and Finance.
Meanwhile, the House has directed its Committee on Justice to examine the Supreme Court judgment on local government areas and determine the constitutionality of releasing their funds to care-taker chairmen appointed by state governments.
This is as it urged President Buhari to convene a meeting of the Council of States and impress upon the governors to hold local government elections without delay.
This followed a resolution sponsored by Hon. Afe Olowookere (Ondo PDP) titled: ‘need to sustain and promote democratic local government administration and good governance’.
Olowookeere noted that the absence of democratically elected local governments councils in most states of the federation and the institution of an amorphous system known as caretaker committees in local government administration in most states of the federation, are alien to the 1999 constitution.
This, he added, had denied Nigerians the right to participate in the administration of their local government councils, hindering socio-economic growth, and good governance at the grass roots.
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