By Ezrel Tabiowo and
Joshua Egbodo, Abuja
The National Assembly, yesterday, received a harmonised final report of the Appropriation Bill presented to both chambers at a joint session by President Muhammadu Buhari six months ago.
The 2017 budget, which will be passed tomorrow, makes it the longest under consideration before passage by the National Assembly since 1999.
Also, this makes the first time that both chambers of the National Assembly will be passing a harmonised budget since 1999, without recourse to a conference committee to resolve conflicting areas therein.
According to Senate rules, the budget is expected to be considered and passed 48 hours after being laid by both chambers of the National Assembly.
Speaking after the harmonised report was laid before the Upper Chamber, Senate President Bukola Saraki, said the National Assembly made history by laying for the first time an Appropriation bill with details.
He said: “What we are seeing this morning is history being made. This is the first time the Committee on Appropriation will lay the Appropriation Bill (report) with details. Let me congratulate members of the committee for again opening a new chapter in the Senate.
“Because of the details being laid now, we will ensure that by tomorrow you will all get the printed hard copies. The soft copies will be available by later today so that we can give the entire of tomorrow for people to study and for us to, hopefully, pass it on Thursday.”
Also, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Aliyu Sabi-Abdullahi, in a chat with newsmen, said the Senate and House of Representatives had harmonised their versions of the budget before the presentation yesterday.
Sabi-Abdullahi said: “Remember I once said the two committees were working to harmonise their reports. The report that was laid (at the Senate) will be the exact report that will be laid in the House of Representatives. The key takeaway today is that fact that we did not just lay the report; we laid the report along with the details of the budget. I think this is unprecedented because to the best of our knowledge, from 1999 to date, it did not happen.”
There was apprehension last week when the 2016 expired May 5 and the 2017 Budget still in the works.
But in his intervention, Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, explained that the 2016 budget would run till end of June, within which the 2017 budget would be passed.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations yesterday, also laid its own version of the report on the 2017 Budget, thus putting to rest the speculations that the Bill might suffer more setbacks.
Like the Senate, it also received similar communication on President Buhari’s medical vacation.
Giving some details on the 2017 Appropriation Bill , the House said while President Buhari wanted an aggregate expenditure of N7.298 trillion, the report as laid by Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Hon. Mustapha Dawaki, showed an aggregate expenditure of N7.441 trillion, leaving an increment of about N143 billion.
The budget bill had suffered several delays, as the House had to shift its initial timeline of March, blaming the decision however on the use of a new computer software with its challenging technicalities in the process, a decision the spokesman, Hon. Abdulrazak Namdas, told journalists, was also being exploited by the executive, which had requested for some changes to its initial proposals.
There was another dramatic angle to the process, when the parliament threatened that the budget could not be considered as planned, after the Easter break, following the police raid on the residence of Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Senator Danjuma Goje, during which the budget report was allegedly carted away.
Summary of the report laid yesterday showed that of the total sum, N434.412 billion is for Statutory Transfers, N1.841 trillion is allocated for Debt Service, N177.460 billion is for sinking funds on maturing bonds, N2.990 trillion is for Recurrent Expenditure, and N2.174 trillion is for contribution to the development fund for capital expenditure, for the year ending 31 December, 2017.
