BEVERLY HILLS, April 30, (THEWILL) – The Senate has passed the sum of N8.916 trillion for the 2019 budget against the sum of N8.83 trillion earlier proposed by President Muhammadu Buhari.
This was passed after Danjuma Goje, Chairman, Senate Committee on appropriations, presented a report on Tuesday.
The figure is N86 billion higher than the estimates presented by Buhari before a joint session of the national assembly on December 19.
Goje noted that this is the first time that the senate would not tamper with key assumptions such as $60 per barrel of crude oil and N305/$ benchmark.
“This is the first time that the benchmark will not be increased,” he said.
Thereafter, the senators voted on the clauses of the appropriation bill in the committee of supply.
They also approved a N10 billion intervention fund for Zamfara following the activities of bandits and kidnappers that have ravaged the state.
Key components of the budget passed by the senators are:
Statutory transfer (for the National Assembly, National Judicial Council (NJC) and Public Complaint Commission (PCC) among others – N502.58 billion
Debt service (foreign and domestic) – N2.25 trillion
Recurrent expenditure – N4.65 trillion
Capital expenditure – N2.94 trillion
