House Of Rep Passes 2021 Budget, Proceeds On Holiday

The House of Representatives had passed the N13.58 trillion 2021 budget before embarking on its Christmas/New Year holiday.

The green chamber on Monday also passed the 2021-2023 Medium Term Expenditure Framework.

The Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila, during the budget passage failed to allow review of the report.

The budget was passed following the consideration of the report of the National Assembly Joint committee on Appropriations laid by the Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation, Mustapha Batera.

A total of N505,607,317,874 was added to the amount proposed by the Executive–N13.08 trillion and presented by President Muhammadu Buhari on the 8th October, 2020.

The exchange rate benchmark was pegged at N379/$ and crude oil production at 1.86 million barrels per day (including 400,000 barrels of condensate) at $40 per barrel, as proposed by the executive.

The breakdown of the budget as passed by the House is as follow, “Statutory transfer – N496,528,471,273, Debt service; ₦3,324,380,000,000, recurrent expenditure; ₦5,641,970,060,680, capital expenditure;₦4,125,149,354,222 and fiscal deficit; ₦5,196,007,992,292.”

The bill was also passed through third reading before adjourning for the year.

The speaker while speaking at the end of the plenary said despite the economy issue, Nigeria is doing better than most countries.

He praised the members of the National Assembly for the passage of the 2021 bill to continue the January-December budget cycle.

Following the bill passage, the House has now adjourned its sittings until the 26th of January, 2021.