The National Assembly has extended the implementation of the capital component of the 2022 budget from 31st March, 2023 to 30th June, 2023.
The extension by the Senate was sequel to a lead debate by the Senate leader, Senator Ibrahim Gobir, requesting the upper chamber for the amendment of the Appropriation act 2022.
House of Representatives has extended the lifespan of the capital component of the 2022 Appropriation Act and the supplementary budget for the 2022 fiscal year, respectively.
The lawmakers gave the approval for the implementation of the capital component of the 2022 Appropriation Act and Supplementary budget from 31st March 2023 to 30th June 2023, sequel to the adoption of the bill during the Committee of Supply.
The bill was transmitted by the Senate for concurrence.
The House had in December 2022 passed a bill for an Act to amend the Appropriation Act, 2022 to extend the implementation of the capital aspect from 31 December 2022 to 31 March 2023.
The House also approved the N819.54 billion supplementary budget sent by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Buhari had in a letter to the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, and solicited approval for the capital expenditure component of the 2022 budget to be financed through new domestic borrowings.
According to him, the addition became necessary due to the devastation caused by floods on farmlands and road infrastructure.
“The year 2022 has witnessed the worst flood incidents in recent history in the country which has caused massive destruction of farmlands at the point already close to the harvest season.
“This may compound the situation of food security and nutrition in this country.
“The flood also devastated the road infrastructure across the 36 states and the FCT and it affected several sections of major roads and bridges nationwide that are critical to the movement of goods and services.
“The water sector was also affected by the flood and there is the need to complete some ongoing critical projects that have achieved about 85 per cent completion.
“The nine critical projects proposed in the water sector cut across water supply, dam projects and irrigation projects nationwide.
“I have therefore approved the supplementary 2022 Appropriation of N819, 000,536,937, all of which are capital expenditures.
“The supplementary would be financed through additional domestic borrowings and this would raise the budget deficit for 2022 to 8.17 trillion and deficit GDP ratio to 4.43 per cent,” Buhari said in the letter.”
Meanwhile, the Senate leader said that the extension will enable the government to implement key projects in the capital component of the 2022 budget and allow for the completion of ongoing projects critical to the current administration. The two sponsored bills were, Bill for an Act to amend the 2022 Appropriation Act and Bill for an Act to amend the 2022 Supplementary Appropriation Act. The Senate relaxed its standing rules to grant accelerated consideration and approval to enable it read the Bill for the first, second and third time before its passage.
In his presentation, Senator Gobir who noted that the bills seek to amend the 2022 appropriation act and 2022 supplementary appropriation act to extend the implementation year from March 31 to June 30, said that the National Assembly had extended the implementation of the 2022 appropriation Act from Dec 31 2022 to March 31, 2023. According to him, this is to allow for a full implementation of the budget, given the approval of supplementary budget approved in December 2022. He said that the extension had allowed Ministries Department and Agencies (MDAs) to use a large proportion of funds released to them, adding that significant amount of funds remained with MDAs and would require a further extension to be fully extended. Gobir who noted that given the critical importance of some key projects nearing completion, requested for further extension of the expiration clause in the appropriation act, said that the long title explanatory memorandum of the supplementary appropriation act was expedient. This, he said was to avoid compounding the problem of abandoned projects, given that some of the projects were not provided for in the 2023 budget, just as he urged the Senators to support the bill to allow for full utilisation of capital release to help reflate the economy.
The Senate Leader said, ” you will recall that the National Assembly extended the implementation of the 2022 Appropriation Act from 31st December 2022 to 31st March,2023. This was to allow full implementation of the budget, especially in the light of the 2022 Supplementary budget approved in December 2022 the extension had allowed MDAs to utilise a large proportion of funds released to them. However, significant amounts of funds remain with MDAs and will require a further extension to be fully expended. Giving the critical importance of some key projects nearing completion, requesting a further extension of the expiration clause in the Appropriation (Amendment) Act, 2022 and the Long Title and Explanatory Memorandum of the Supplementary Appropriation Act is expedient to avoid compounding the problem of abandoned projects, given that some of the projects were not provided for in the 2023 Budget”.
In his contribution, Senator Gabriel Suswam, who supported the request to extend the budget, said that it should be spelt out that the 2022 budget will run concurrently with the 2023 Appropriation Act. The Senate later dissolved into “Committee of Supply” to consider the report before it eventually approved and passed the request to extend the life of the 2022 budget till June 30th, 2023.
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