Senate, reps pass 2023 budget for second reading

The senate and the house of representatives have passed the 2023 budget proposal of N20.5 trillion for second reading.

Both chambers of the national assembly passed the bill on Wednesday after their majority leaders presented reports.

Contributing to the debate on the budget proposal in the senate, Ali Ndume, senator representing Borno south, wondered why the country’s recurrent expenditure was increasing.

“We cannot continue to borrow money to fund less than one percent of the population,” Ndume said.

“Why is our recurrent expenditures going up, especially since technology has made our work easier?”

Isah Jibrin, senator representing Kogi east, said revenue generating agencies that are not remitting monies to the coffers of the federal government should be sanctioned.

“I think the government should sanction some of the wanting agencies to act as a deterrent to some of these agencies,” Jibrin said.

On his part, Smart Adeyemi, senator representing Kogi west, said the country should leverage the agricultural sector to diversify the economy.

He said the country must look at its vantage position in agriculture and diversify.

“Let us complete our refinery, let us stop the leakages,” Adeyemi added.

Also speaking, Senate President Ahmad Lawan said the federal government has to be prudent with the revenue it generates.

He also urged the federal government to channel borrowings to infrastructure development.

“Of course, we cannot run away from borrowing. When we borrow, the funds must be targeted at developing our infrastructures,” Lawan said.

Thereafter, Lawan referred the bill to the appropriations committee for further legislative input.

The appropriations committees in the senate and house are expected to report back to their chambers in four weeks.

In the 2023 budget proposed by the executive, N744,109, 468,797 was earmarked for statutory transfers while N6,557,597,611,797 was fixed for debt service.

The sum of N8,271,882,354,405 was put aside for recurrent (non-debt) expenditure while N4,934,352,745,705 was fixed for capital expenditure.

President Muhammadu Buhari presented the budget to the national assembly last week.