Senate Postpones Budget Passage Till After Christmas

The Senate has postponed the passage of the 2023 budget and Finance Bill until Wednesday, December 28th, 2022, after the Christmas celebrations.

Naija News reports that Senate President Ahmad Lawan disclosed the development during plenary on Thursday.

According to Lawan, the postponement was necessary because the appropriations committee is faced with some challenges in presenting the report on the 2023 budget to the Senate.

He noted that the appropriations bill came to the National Assembly from the executive with some problems, therefore when the committee tried reconciling the figures, the challenge became obvious and difficult to tackle.

The senate president submitted that the Senate appropriations committee commenced a process of engagement with the executive in an attempt to clean up the 2023 budget.

But the process, he said was concluded on Wednesday, December 21st and the Committee couldn’t conclude on putting together the report for submission on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Naija News reported yesterday that President Muhammadu Buhari transmitted the Finance Bill on Tuesday and a supplementary budget to the parliament on Wednesday.