Senate To Get 2017 Budget In Three Weeks

Senate President Senator Bukola Saraki (L), Speaker, House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara (C) and President Muhammadu Buhari (R)

Senate President Bukola Saraki has tasked the Appropriations Committee to submit the report on the 2017 budget in three weeks.

Media report continues:

This comes as a public hearing on the budget has been slated for February 7th and 8th 2017.

The Senate has also suspended plenary for three weeks to allow its standing committees carry out budget defence sessions with Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs).

To this end, the legislative body will resume plenary on February 21, 2017.

Saraki stated this on Thursday while giving his remarks to conclude debate on general principles of the ₦7.298trillion budget.

Public hearing on the budget is one of the recommendations of the Budget Reforms Committee, instituted by the 8th Senate.

“In line with our processes for 2017 budget, there are two innovations that we are bringing in: one is a public hearing which is going to take place between 7th and 8th of February.

“I hereby refer the bill to the committee on Appropriations to report back in three weeks”.

He charged lawmakers to objectively review the planned expenditure and review the revenues of the budget in line with the main objectives of the appropriation bill “we have discussed pulling us out of economic recession, investing in our people, laying foundation for a diversified sustainable inclusive growth and pushing our agenda for a made in Nigeria products”.

The ₦7,298,507,709,937 2017 budget has Statutory Transfers of ₦419,020,684,000, Debt Servicing of ₦1,663,885,430,499, Sinking Fund for Maturing Bonds: ₦177,460,296,707, Recurrent (Non-Debt) Expenditure: ₦2,979,151,756,196 and Contribution to the Development Fund for Capital Expenditure: ₦2,058,989,578,536.

The budget is predicated on benchmark oil price of US$42.5 per barrel, projected oil production of 2.2million barrels per day, exchange rate of ₦305 to US$1 as well as projected GDP Growth Rate of 4.37 percent.

While expressing concern over what he termed ‘duplication of expenditure’ in the budget on purchase of computers and cars, he charged committees to block areas of leakages and ensure equitable distribution of projects across the country.