Reps raise N20.51 trillion 2023 budget to N21.82 trillion

• Approve Buhari’s 2022 N819.54bn supplementary budget

• Extend 2022 budget implementation to March 2023

• Pass finance bill, 2022

• Okay N262bn budget for FIRS

By Christiana Ekpa

The House of Representatives has passed the 2023 Appropriation Bill, an increased the figure by about N1.31 trillion above the N20.51 trillion figure presented for consideration by President Muhammadu Bauhari.

The House raised the N20.51 trillion 2023 earlier submitted by Buhari to the total sum of N21.82 trillion.

This followed the consideration and approval of the report of the House committee on appropriation at plenary by the committee on supply which showed an increase of over N1 trillion proposed estimates of the executive.

Out of the total sum, N967.48 billion is for statutory transfers, N6.55 trillion is for debt service, N8.32 trillion is for recurrent (non-debt) expenditure while the sum of N5.97 trillion is for contribution to the development fund for capital expenditure for the year ending on the 31st day of December, 2023.

From the statutory transfers, the National Judicial Council takes N165 billion; Niger-Delta Development Commission gets N119.93 billion, Universal Basic Education N103.28 billion; Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) N173.63 billion; National Human Right Commission

N4.5 billion; North East Development Commission N59.03 billion; Basic Health Care Fund N51.64 billion and National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) N51.64 billion.

Also under the statutory transfers, National Assembly Severance/Inauguration of outgoing and incoming 9th and 10th Assembly (Legislators and Legislative Aides) is allocated N30.17 billion,

National Assembly Office gulps N30.49 billion; Senate N33.26 billion, House of Representatives N51.99 billion; National Assembly Service Commission N10.55 billion; National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) N7.41billion and Service Wide Vote N671.3 million.

Further breakdown shows that Office of Retired Clerks and Permanent Secretaries take N1.05 billion, National Assembly Library Building N4.25 billion; Constitution Review N850 million; Completion of NILDS headquarters N2.5 billion; Construction of National Assembly Service Commission Building N10 billion and Public Complaints Commission N10.69 billion.

For debt service, domestic debts (including Ways and Means) get N4.49 trillion; foreign debts is allocated N1.81 trillion; sinking fund to retire maturing loans takes N247.72 billion.

Under recurrent expenditure (Non-debt) the presidency is allocated N76.40 billion, defence gets N1.09 trillion,

ministry of foreign affairs N93.68 billion, federal ministry of information & culture N59.82 billion; interior N278.69 billion; Police Affairs N777.40 billion; communications and digital economy N32.13 billion; National Security Adviser N172.60 billion and Secretary to the Government of the Federation takes, N70.08 billion.

Also for the recurrent expenditure, Federal Ministry of Special Duties & Inter-Governmental Affairs gets, N4.79 billion; Agriculture and Rural Development, N85.41 billion; Finance, Budget and National Planning, N29.99 billion; Industry, Trade and Investment N16.82 billion; Labour and Employment, N15.52 billion, Science, Technology and Innovation N52.33 billion; Transport N18.01 billion;

Aviation, N9.43 billion; Petroleum Resources, N33.15 billion and Works and Housing N34.98 billion.

For the capital expenditure,  Presidency is allocated, N20.11 billion, defence gets N285 billion, Foreign Affairs, N5.85 billion; Information & Culture N11.87 billion; Interior, N45.62 billion; Police N60.64 billion; National Security Adviser, N70.33 billion; Agriculture and Rural Development, N248.35 billion, Finance, Budget and National Planning N166.74 billion.

Further breakdown of the capital expenditure indicated that Science, Technology and Innovation is allocated, N132.57 billion; Transport, N74.26 billion; Aviation, N49.41 billion;  Power N56.14 billion; Works and Housing, N398.27 billion; Federal Capital Territory Administration, N15.47 billion; Education, N153.73 billion; Health, N134.90 billion and Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development N32.05 billion.

Similarly, the House also approved President Muhammadu Buhari’s supplementary budget of N819.54bn, a request essentially made to fix the infrastructure destroyed by floods nationwide.

It will be recalled that the Speaker of the House, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila had last week read the request of the President, saying the amount formed the capital expenditure component of the 2022 budget.

The approval of the budget followed the adoption of report presented by the Chairman House Committee on Appropriation, Hon. Muktar Betara.

Presenting the report, Betara explained that the total sum of N819, 536,937,813 was for the under-mentioned Ministries, “Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development N69,247,175,770, Federal Ministry of Works and Housing N704,789,762,043, Federal Capital Territory N30,000,000,000 and Federal Ministry of Water Resources N15,500,000,000.”

Also, the House approved the request of the President to extend the life span of the capital expenditure of the 2022 budget from December 31, 2022 to March 31, 2023.

In a related development the lawmakers also passed the Finance bill, 2022 meant to provide support for the funding of the 2023 budget.

The passage of the bill with proposed amendments fiscal laws such as capital gains tax, company income tax, customs excise tariff Act, Federal Inland Revenue Service Act, personal income tax and stamp duties act followed the consideration and adoption of the report on it presented by the deputy Chairman Committee on Finance, Hon. Saidu Abdullahi at the plenary.

Also, the House considered and passed the sum of N262, 959,510,955 as the budget for Federal 

Inland Revenue (FIRS) in the fiscal year 2023.

The approval followed the consideration and adoption of report presented by the deputy Chairman, House Committee on Finance, Hon. Saidu Abdullahi.

Presenting the report, Abdullahi said that the sum of N126,070,912,538 was for Personnel Cost,  N96,061,565,065 was for Overhead Cost and the sum of N40,827,033,352 was for Capital Expenditure for the service year ending December 2023.

He said the approval was necessary to return the Service to the January to December budget cycle.