Nigerian Senate passes 2016 budget

The Senate has passed the N6.08 trillion budget for 2016, with an unprecedented reduction in the budget’s total.

President Muhammadu Buhari presented a N6.08 trillion proposal in December 2015.

The Senate passed N6,060,677,358,227 trillion budget after considering its conference report on the budget.

It was the first time since 1999 that the National Assembly would approve a figure lower than proposed by the executive, John Enoh, who heads the senate finance committee, said.

He said that reflected the “mood of the country and the world” and showed “discipline” of the part of the National Assembly.

Presenting a report on the budget, Danjuma Goje, Chairman senate committee on appropriation, said that the budget was “full of controversy”, but that the senate would not want to delay its passage by adding more controversies to it.

He said that there were lapses in the budget, but that the committee had to work around them. He said that the delay in the passage of the budget had already been given a political hue, hence Nigerians would blame the legislature for any further delay.

President Muhammadu Buhari presented a record N6.07 trillion budget in December but asked for its withdrawal a month later to make changes after a further drop in oil prices.

The total budget has not changed but the deficit has risen to 3 trillion naira ($15 billion) from 2.2 trillion.

The senate, based on the recommendation of the committee, adopted $38 per barrel crude oil benchmark for the budget, as proposed by the federal government. It also adopted a foreign exchange rate of N197 per dollar as proposed by the government.

The senate, however, reduced the total budget sum from N6.07trn to N6.06trn: N351bn for statutory transfers, N1.4trn for debt service, N2.6trn for recurrent expenditure, and N1.5trn as capital expenditure.

Also, the upper legislative chamber observed that the budget was not presented in time to the national assembly, which effected its passage.

It urged the federal government to submit the budget subsequently in strict compliance with the Fiscal Policy Act, and advised that there should be proper consultation between the budget office and the ministries, departments and agencies.

The senate also asked the government to diversify its revenue base, and to shore up capital expenditure and reduce recurrent expenditure.

Nigeria has held talks with the World Bank and has looked at borrowing from the African Development Bank and China Exim Bank to plug the budget gap as oil trades around $30 a barrel, down from over $100 in 2014.
SHORT BREAK DOWN OF 2016 BUDGET
Power, housing and works………. #433.4b
Transportation………………. ‪#‎202b‬
Interior……………… #53.1b
Special intervention programs………‪#‎300b‬
Defence…………. #137.6b
Education…….. #369.6b
Health…….#221.7b

SOURCE: Lensng