The Senate on Tuesday passed the 2019 Appropriation Bill of N8.916 trillion.
This followed the adoption of the report of Senate Committee on Appropriation at plenary.
Presenting the report, Senator Danjuma Goje said the increase of N90bn in the budget is to cater for security challenges in the country, packages for lawmakers and support for Zamfara State.
The passed version is N86 billion higher than the proposal of N8.83 trillion presented by President Muhammadu Buhari to the National Assembly for the 2019 fiscal year.
A breakdown of the budget estimate reveals that statutory transfer is N502.58 billion, N2.25 trillion is for debt servicing, recurrent expenditure gets N4.65 trillion, and N2.94 trillion is earmarked for capital expenditure.
The Senate adopted the recommendation of the Appropriations Committee which proposed that N10 billion be added to the service-wide votes to support the victims of crises in Zamfara State.
N23.68bn was also approved for severance gratuity for outgoing legislators and legislative aides and for the allowances for incoming legislators and legislative aides and induction programme and inauguration of the 9th Assembly.
Thereafter, the Senate dissolved into the Committee of Supply for the consideration of the 2019 Appropriation Bill
The bill was then read the third time and passed by the lawmakers.
In his remarks, the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, commended his colleagues for the efforts that led to the passage of the bill and called for its complete implementation by the Executive.
He said, “I want to thank our colleagues, particularly for their understanding and for us to be able to meet today’s deadline in passing the bill and (I) thank the Committee on Appropriation too.”
“I hope that with this budget passed, the Executive will also ensure the full implementation of the budget for the benefit of Nigerians as a whole,” Senator Saraki added.
President Buhari presented the 2019 budget proposal to the National Assembly amid cheers and jeers on December 19, 2018.
