By Haruna Gimba
The Nigeria’s Senate on Monday passed the sum of N13.5 trillion budgets for the 2021 fiscal year.
This is an increase of N5.55 billion from the N13.08 trillion presented by President Muhammadu Buhari in October.
The senate also approved the sum of N496.5 billion as Statutory Transfers; N5.6 trillion as recurrent expenditure; N4.1 trillion as capital expenditure N3.3 trillion as debt servicing and N4.1 trillion as contribution to the Development Fund for capital expenditure.
The passage of the budget was sequel to the consideration of a report by the Senate Committee on Appropriations, chaired by Senator Barau Jibrin.
Also, the House of Representatives has passed the 2021 Appropriation bill of N13.588 trillion.
The budget was passed on Monday after adoption of the report on the 2021 Appropriation Bill presented to the House by the Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation, Muktar Betara Aliyu.
The figure is up by N505bn from the original estimates of N13.08tn President Muhammadu Buhari laid before a joint session of the National Assembly on October 8.
The session presided over by the Speaker, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila, approved $40 as the crude oil benchmark for the budget.
The House approved N4.1tn for capital expenditure, N5.6tn for recurrent expenditure and N3.3tn for debt servicing.
The sum of N496bn was also approved for statutory transfers by lawmakers on Monday.
The House achieved the objective of keeping to the January-December budget cycle by passing the budget after spending slightly over two months at the legislature.
The House also adjourned plenary till January 26, 2021 after a motion moved by the House Leader, Alhassan Ado Doguwa.
