•Appropriation bill passes second reading in both chambers•Buhari’s decision to end subsidy on eve of his exit political, not patriotic, says Deputy Minority LeaderThe Senate and House of Representatives yesterday passed for second reading the N20.51 trillion 2023 budget presented to the National Assembly last Friday by President Muhammadu Buhari.
He noted with concern the N8.2 trillion earmarked for recurrent expenditure in the proposed N20.51 trillion 2023 budget, which he said, constituted 43 per cent of the entire budget profile. “The Senate and by extension, the National Assembly, need to critically look into it this time around, more so, with attendant increase in the votes of debt servicing which is projected to be N6.31 trillion for the 2023 fiscal year and far higher than capital vote of N5.35 trillion.
She said, “In August this year, from 1.82 million barrels oil production expected from Nigeria per day, the country was only able to produce 972 million barrels per day, losing 859 million barrels per day to oil thieves.” This dangerous revenue loss must be stopped in the general interest of all,” she said.
Also, the Senate yesterday passed the N607,952,023,580.00 2022 budget of the Federal Capital Territory for second reading. Members of the red chamber in their various contributions, expressed dismay in the late presentation of the FCT Statutory Appropriation Bill, 2022 for consideration.
In a related development, the Senate yesterday passed the N65,905,252,467 budget of the Nigeria Police Trust Fund for 2022. Meanwhile, members of the House of Representatives at plenary yesterday passed for second reading the 2023 Appropriation Bill presented to the parliament last week by President Muhammadu Buhari.
He noted that provision had been made to address petroleum subsidy payments, adding that six months from now, the country would go into free subsidy regime. Okechukwu recalled how Buhari when he was vying for the presidency in 2014, had claimed that petrol subsidy was a scam. “Mr. Speaker, the benchmark we have as per OPEC quota is 1.69 million barrels per day. Today, what we have set out to do is less than 1.8 million that we should be doing. “Unfortunately, in the Niger Delta, the level of theft and the heist that is going on in the oil industry has made this impossible. Suddenly, we are discovering that a pipeline has been existing for the harvest of petroleum products and it not official.