Senate and the House of Representatives have in their respective plenary approved N4,987,202,425,601 as national budget for the 2013 fiscal year.
This is N62 billion higher than the budget estimate presented to the National Assembly by President Goodluck Jonathan in October.
In the lower chamber's version of the approved sum, N387.976 billion is to go for statutory transfers; N591.764 billion is meant for debt transfer; N2,386,024,770,349 for recurrent (non-debt) expenditure; while N1,621,477,655,252 is meant for contribution to the development fund for capital expenditure.
Members of the House surprisingly did not show any sign of discontent with the budget when it was tabled for final passage on Thursday.
This runs contrary to their earlier hard stance on the budget when it was presented by the President.
The House, however, refused to allocate any fund to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the 2013 budget because of its disagreement with the Presidency over the continued stay in office of Arunmah Oteh as Director General of the agency.
Zakari Mohammed, House Committee Chairman on Media and Public Affairs, at a press briefing after the passage of the Appropriation Bill, explained that members decided to soft pedal on the 2013 budget because of their concern for the welfare of the common man.
He noted that the House had promised the common man that the budget will be passed before the celebration of Christmas, and that the promise had been kept.
On why the House did not allocate any fund to SEC, he explained that as long as Oteh remains in office as its DG, the commission would not enjoy any parliamentary allocation from the national budget.
Mohammed insisted that it was wrong for the executive arm of government to selectively obey National Assembly resolutions.
He noted that one of such resolutions was the decision by the Senate that Bolanle Onagoruwa of the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE) be relieved of her job, and was so sent packing by the Executive when intense pressure was mounted on it by the Senate.
The same method, he said, will be applied in the case of Oteh, and that the agency will continue to suffer under the weight of parliamentary sanctions until she was finally removed from office.
Mohammed added that the budget was passed with computation of figures premised on $79 per barrel of crude oil.
The breakdown of the approved budget showed that from the recurrent expenditure, education sector got the highest allocation of N360,822,928,272.
From the N387.976 billion approved for statutory transfer, National Assembly also got N150 billion; Universal Basic Education got N76.279 billion; National Judicial Council got N67 billion; Niger Delta Development Commission got N61.347 billion; Independent National Electoral Commission got N32 billion while National Human Rights Commission got N1.35 billion.
Speaking on the fate of the controversial 2012 budget, which had become a source of conflict between the House and the executive arm of government, Mohammed disclosed that the projects under the 2012 budget will be allowed to roll over into 2013 and funded with the revenue meant for the last quarter of 2012.
In the Senate version, N387,976,000,000 is meant for statutory transfers, N591,764,000,000 for debt service, N2,386,024,770,349 for recurrent expenditure and N1,621,477,655,252 is for contribution to the development fund for capital expenditure for the year ending December 31, 2013 in addition to subsidy re-investment which has the total sum of N273 billion.
Like the House, the Senate approved budget was pegged on $79 per barrel against the Executive recommendation of $75 per barrel with the exchange rate remaining at N160 per dollar and the inflation rate and Gross Domestic Product Growth remaining at 9.5 per cent and 6.5 per cent respectively.
The crude oil production also remains at 2.53mbpd as recommended by the Executive.
The Senate asked the Executive to be more thorough in compiling the budget, just as it noticed that some critical areas of the economy were still grossly underfunded.
"For instance, the Public Complaints Commission is still underfunded as if it were a mere officer secretariat even when 36 commissioners of this parastatal of the National Assembly with offices in the 36 states of the federation have been inaugurated by the President of the Senate, while the Auditor General who serves as the check to all government accounts within and outside the country is left with meager amount that can barely sustain his office.
"However, we still must continue to make efforts towards a realistic and workable budget for Nigeria," Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, Ahmad Maccido, said.
He added that conceptualisation of the budget by the Executive is still a big issue that the National Assembly must confront as representatives of the people.
He said a situation where projects not found in the 2011 and 2012 budgets are found in 2013 as on going was misleading.
"In the same vain, a situation where uncompleted projects are not included in the budget of succeeding years is wasteful," he added.
Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) reacted swiftly on Thursday, commending the leadership of the National Assembly for passing the budget speedily.
The party in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, said the success recorded by the lawmakers on the budget is "a loud commentary on the maturity of the leadership of the Senate and the House of Representatives and a clear indication that democracy is not only gaining firm footing but also safe in the hands of the PDP."
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