Senate Receives 2017 Budget, To Be Passed on Thursday

The Senate on Tuesday received the report of the Joint Committee on Appropriation and Finance on the 2017 Appropriation Bill.

The report was laid at plenary by the Chairman of the Joint Committee on Appropriation, Sen. Danjuma Goje.

In his remarks, Senate President, Bukola Saraki, commended the committee for a job well done.

He said the senate would ensure the passage of the bill on Thursday.

Saraki commended the committee for laying the report with details, saying it would help speed up the passage of the bill.

His words “On behalf of our colleagues let me congratulate the committee.

“This is history been made, because this is the first time report of the Appropriation Bill will be laid with details.

“Because of that, by tomorrow (Wednesday) you will get hard copies of the report, but the soft copy will be ready today.

“We will distribute them and ensure we pass the bill on Thursday,’’ he said.

Information has it that the 2017 Budget proposal report was laid four days after the expiration of the 2016 fiscal year.

President Muhammadu Buhari had presented a budget proposal of N7.30 trillion for the 2017 fiscal year before a Joint Session of the National Assembly on Dec. 14, 2016.

From details of the proposal presented by President Buhari, the sum of N2.24 trillion, representing 30.7 per cent, will be committed to capital expenditure, while N2.98 trillion will go to recurrent spending.

Also, the oil benchmark price was set at 42.5 dollar per barrel and a production estimate of 2.2 million barrels per day

The proposal also put the aggregated revenue available to fund the budget at N4.94 tn, which is 28 per cent higher than that of 2016.