The Senate has passed the 2024 appropriation bill, increasing its size from N27.5 trillion as proposed by President Bola Tinubu to N28.7 trillion.
The budget size was increased by N1.2 trillion.
The passage of the bill, followed the approval of report of the Senate Committee on Appropriation at plenary on Saturday.
The budget passed has N1.7 trillion as statutory transfers, N8.7 trillion as recurrent expenditure, and N9.9 trillion as capital expenditure.
Presenting the report the committee chairman, Sen.Solomon Adeola, said they adopted the Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Paper (MTEF/FSP) approved by National Assembly in preparing the budget.
He said the committee adopted the 77.96 dollar per barrel oil benchmark of 1.78mbpd and 800 dollar exchange rate to naira as against 750 dollars proposed by the executive.
Adeola listed the highlights of the bill to include a total aggregate expenditure of N28.7 trillon, statutory transfers of N1.7 trillion, recurrent expenditure of N8.7 trillion, and capital expenditure component of N9.9 trillon.
The chairman said the committee in processing the bill, worked closely with the executive harmoniously.
He said through the closely and harmonious appropriation process, the executive forwarded request for additional funding of some items not included in the bill earlier submitted by the President.
The chairman said that the committee observed that the 2024 Appropriation Bill was presented to the National Assembly late, contrary to the three months before the next financial year as provided in the Fiscal Responsibility Act.
Adeola also said there were inconsistencies in the revenue of some Government Owned Enterprises (GOEs).
He also said that the personnel costs of some agencies were removed from the Federal Government payroll and inadequate funding in some allocation of government Ministries, Departments and Agencies(MDAs).
Adeola said to ensure thorough scrutiny of the budget, the executives should henceforth comply with the provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Act and relevant extant laws as it concerns government agencies.
He urged agencies removed from federal government budget to step up their revenue generation, fund themselves and remit more to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF).
The chairman also called for provision of additional funds to some MDAs not appropriately funded.
He urged the executive to to sustain the increase in the capital component over recurrent to ensure developmental programmes across the country.
