President Muhammadu Buhari has transmitted the 2022 Appropriation Act (Amendment) Bill to the National Assembly.
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, announced transmission of the Federal Government’s supplementary budget at the opening of plenary on Tuesday.
Though Gbajabiamila did not read out the content of the six-page executive bill, it is expected to contain a provision for the payment of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, for an additional 18 months.
The government had made a U-turn on its plan to end the subsidy regime in June.
Recall that the president had complained about “worrisome changes” made by the lawmakers in the N17.126 trillion 2022 Appropriation Bill he signed into law in December.
The legislature had approved N17.1 trillion as against the N16.3 trillion he proposed in October, adding about N700 billion to the budget.
Specifically, Buhari complained about the increase in the Federal Government’s ‘Independent Revenue’ by N400 billion and the reduction of non-regular allowances of the Nigerian Police Force and the Nigerian Navy by N15 billion and N5 billion, respectively.
‘‘This is particularly worrisome because personnel cost provisions are based on agencies’ nominal roll and approved salaries/allowances.
‘‘Furthermore, an increase of N21.72 billion in the Overhead budgets of some MDAs, while the sum of N1.96 billion was cut from the provision for some MDAs without apparent justification.
‘‘Increase in the provision for Capital spending (excluding Capital share in Statutory Transfer) by a net amount of N575.63 billion, from N4.89 trillion to N5.47 trillion,’’ the president had said.
