The two Chambers of the National Assembly have passed the 2021 Appropriation Bill for third reading, by increasing the budget size from N13.08trillion presented to them by President Muhamnadu Buhari 11 weeks ago, to N13.588trillion .
Passage of the 2021 budget by both Chambers in Plenary on Monday, followed consideration and adoption of harmonized reports seperately submitted to them by their committees on Appropriation .
Highlights of the report as presented ,considered and approved by the Senate shows aggregate expenditure to be N13,588,027,886,175.00trillion, statutory transfer of N496,528,471,273.00 billion, recurrent expenditure of N5,641,970,060,680.00, capital expenditure of N4,125,149,354,222.00, debt service to be N3,324,380,000,000.00 trillion and N5,196,007,992,292.00 trillion as budget deficit.
The parameters and underlying assumptions of the proposed budget as presented by the Chairman Senate Committee on Appropristion, Senator Jibrin Barau (APC Kano North), are GDP growth rate of 3 per cent, oil benchmark of $40 per barrel, crude oil production pegged at 1.86mbpd and exchange rate of N379 to $1US.
He said that the Committee while processing the 2021 Appropriation Bill noted that: “The impact of COVID-19 Pandemic has negatively affected virtually every aspect of life, businesses, individuals and government, especially the revenue accruals to the Government.
“There is remarkable increase in Nigeria’s oil price which is hovering between $47 and $50 per barrel in the international market.
“This is above the benchmark price of $40 per barrel approved by the National Assembly.
“The discovery of under projection of the total revenue to the tune of N100billion.
“The need to enhance the structure of the budget to allow for the reflation of the economy in order to accelerate the process of taking out the economy from its current state of recession.
“The dire need for optimal allocation and judicious utilization of the scare resources available for economic recovery, diversification, enhancement of competitiveness and ensuring social inclusion.”
The committee recommended that “in view of the increasing global oil prices beyond the benchmark of US$40, the Executive may wish to submit a supplementary Appropriation Bill whenever it deems fit in order to fund critical areas that will further help to accelerate to movement of our economy out of its current state of recession.”
Meanwhile, both Chambers of the National Assembly have adjourned plenary to January 26, 2021.