The House of Representatives passed the N21.82 trillion national budget for the fiscal year 2023 on Wednesday.
Remember that President Muhammadu Buhari proposed and laid N20.51 trillion in October of this year.
However, the House increased the figure by more than N1 trillion.
The budget, also known as the appropriation bill, was passed after the House committee on appropriation considered and approved the report presented by the chairman, Hon. Aliyu Betara, at plenary at the committee on supply.
Out of the total sum, N967.48 billion was earmarked for statutory transfers,
N6.55 trillion was for debt service, N8.32 trillion was for recurrent (non-debt) expenditure while the sum of N5.97 trillion was for capital expenditure for the year ending 31st day of December, 2023.
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.