NASS approves N575bn supplementary budget

The chambers of the National Assembly, the Senate and the House of Representatives, yesterday, passed a  total sum of N574,532,726,857 as supplementary budget for President Muhammadu Buhari for additional Recurrent (Non- Debt) Expenditure for the year ending on December 31, 2015 to be withdrawn from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation.

With N109 billion approved by the Senate for fuel subsidy, the total would now amount to N522,258,934,505 as the President, in the letter to the Senate, had requested for N413 billion for fuel subsidy.

Also N5,000,000,000 was approved as Victims Support Funds in the Capital Supplementation which would be re-classified to the Service Wide Vote of N559,217,800,017.

The Senate also approved the sum of N29,958,865,512 to fight the Boko Haram insurgency in the North East and payment of outstanding claims in order to reduce the suffering of Nigerians under the heading, Operation Zaman Lafiya. The Nigerian Army will get N17,468,992,640; Nigerian Airforce, N8,141,434,760; Nigerian Army outstanding balance from 2015 and second quarter, N4,348,438,112.

The approval of the Senate was sequel to the report of the Senator Danjuma Goje-led Committee on Appropriations on the 2015 Supplementary Appropriation Bill.

Earlier, the senators broke into an executive session for one hour as part of moves to discuss the appropriation bill and give the President a soft landing by passing the budget and as a follow up to last Thursday’s dinner the Senators were with the President where collaboration and synergy among the Executive and Legislature were emphasized.