Reps to pass N4.6tn budget today

Barring a last minute change in plans, the House of Representatives is set to pass the 2014 budget of N4.6tn today (Tuesday).

The Joint Committee on Appropriations/Finance is expected to brief the House on the budget today; following which lawmakers will consider its report and pass the budget in the Committee of the Whole.

President Goodluck Jonathan had presented the budget estimates to the National Assembly on December 18 last year.

The Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, had laid the estimates to separate sessions of the Senate and the House on behalf of the President.

A disagreement over crude oil benchmark between the two chambers on the one hand, and a lengthy bickering between Jonathan and the legislature over poor budget performance on the other, had delayed the  presentation of the estimates for several weeks.

While the President proposed $74 as the oil benchmark, the Senate had passed $76.50. However, the House passed $79. The two chambers later reconciled at $77.50.

It will be recalled that the President had twice called off his planned visit to the National Assembly to lay the estimates.

In the end, he delegated Okonjo-Iweala after alleged security reports indicated that he might not receive a warm welcome at the National Assembly.

The Notice Paper for this week, which The PUNCH obtained on Monday, indicated that the joint committee recommended N4.642tn as total sum of the budget for approval by the House.

The report showed that N399.687bn was recommended for statutory transfers, while N712bn was voted for debt servicing.

A total of N2.430tn was recommended for recurrent expenditure, while the capital component was captured as N1.100tn for the year ending December 31, 2014.

Copyright PUNCH.