The Nigerian Senate has passed the 2016 Appropriation Bill, though it slashed the budget proposal submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari by about N17 billion.
President Buhari presented a total of N6.08trn budget, out of which N351bn was for statutory transfers, N2.8trn for recurrent expenditure and N1.8trn for capital expenditure.
However, a sum N1.587 trillion was approved by the Senate as the capital expenditure while N2.646.3 trillion. was earmarked for recurrent expenditure.
The senators also approved N351.37 billion as statutory transfers, N1.475.3 trillion for debt service, and N2.2 trillion for fiscal deficit.
The budget was approved based on an oil benchmark of $38, crude production of 2.2000m barrel per day and the exchange rate of N197 to $1.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Danjuma Goje, admitted that the initial budget had a lot or errors of omissions, especially in the area of personnel cost and that is how the difference in N17 billion came about.
He said his committee, therefore filled some of the gaps could still raise serious concerns in the course of the year because there were many outstanding cases.
Bukola Saraki, the President of the Senate said that after the formal passage of the appropriation bill that his colleagues had done his part and requested the president do the needful by signing it to law for immediate implementation.
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