The Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriations, Senator Solomon Adeola, has explained that the National Assembly increased the 2024 Budget, to reflect the nation’s present economic realities.
Adeola gave the explanation in reaction to various interrogations being made by individuals and Civil Society Organisations, after the Budget was passed by the National Assembly on Saturday December 30, 2023.
He pointed out that, while scrutinising the budget documents, the National Assembly discovered that some of the parameters used in preparing the fiscal estimates were not in tandem with the current state of the economy.
President Bola Tinubu had on November 29, 2023, presented a budget of from N27.5 trillion to a joint session of the Senate and the House of Representatives, for consideration and passage.
However, the two legislative Chambers, on Saturday, December 30, 2023, passed a budget figure of N28.77 trillion, indicating an increment of N1. 2 trillion.
In his response to the decision of the National Assembly to increase the budget, Senator Adeola said: “The government has just removed the fuel subsidy, the government has also just intensified effort to unify the exchange rate differences that we usually have and that comes with a lot of price, and Nigerians are paying dearly for it in terms of price of fuel and dollar rate.
“When we got the budget document, the President implored us to interrogate and investigate it and make sure we come up with a document that is all encompassing and can suit the needs and yearnings of Nigerians.
“To start with, the increase in budget has to do with the issue of the exchange rates differences. The current price of dollar at black market is between N1200 and N1300; and in the Central Bank of Nigeria, it is between N950 and N1000 and we have a budget which was pegged at N750.
“Again, we did some external consultations, most especially in the area of oil benchmark and petroleum resources.
“If we had gone in that line, we’d have pegged it at N850/N900 to a dollar and we agree that we want to be conservative in our approach, so that nobody will think that we want to increase the budget for any ulterior motive. That was why we left it at N490 billion out of which N44 billion is for Statutory transfer. So, effectively, the increment is about N446 billion that is going into the Federal Government pocket as consolidated revenue.
“So, you can see that what necessitated our action is the economic reality and what is obtainable in both the Black and Open Markets,” he asserted.
“Secondly, on the issue of the Government Owned Enterprises whose budget was also increased by N784 billion, that was as a result of some of our findings during our Committee hearings.
“One of such Committees that was singled out was that of the National Communications Commission, who presented their budget before the Committee. The Committee observed that the NCC every year, sells between one and two spectrum every financial year and this time it was one; and each of those years was N225 billion and this year, it was N185 billion.
“The Commission complained that aside the sale of the spectrum, there were other expenses that the agency incurred. And the funds generated from the spectrum goes 100 percent into the government agencies.
“We also observed that the rate used in converting the sale into Naira was the old rates, not the new rate. So, we converted into the new rate and that singular action took about N150 billion and that is one agency out of the numerous agencies.
“The NCC was not the only agency that was affected, the Nigerian Ports Authority was also affected, same with NIMASA and almost all agencies that are revenue-generating agencies.
“As such, the Committee in its wisdom thought to look into the revenue generation by the government-owned enterprises, which we did and were able to scoop and gather the sum of N784 billion as an additional revenue to the N18 billion proposed in the document by the Federal Government.
“When you add the two together that gives you the N1.2 trillion increment. It wasn’t that the money was just increased without any work. It was done in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda of the administration of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.”
