Senate passes 2020 budget of N10.59trn into law

The Nigerian Senate has passed the 2020 appropriation bill of N10.59trn into law.

The bill was passed after Barau Jibrin, chairman of the appropriations committee, moved a motion for its passage.

The figure passed as the total expenditure for 2020 by the upper legislative chamber is higher than what President Muhammadu Buhari proposed by N260 billion.

The increase puts the total sum of the government’s expenditure at N10.59 trillion.

On October 8, Buhari presented the 2020 budget proposal of N10.33 trillion to a joint session of the national assembly.

Presenting his report on Thursday, Barau said the key assumptions for the 2020 budget are 2.18 million barrels as daily production of crude and $57/barrel as benchmark price.

Contributing to the debate, Ike Ekweremadu, senator representing Enugu west, said they should have “done better in some areas”.

“I would like to thank the committee and leaders of the national assembly for making this possible,” Ekweremadu said.

“In looking at this budget there were a lot of constraints and we would have also done better in some areas.”

Speaking on the budget, Stellah Oduah, senator representing Anambra north, said it is commendable that security has the “lion’s share”.

Thereafter, the lawmakers voted on the clauses of the bill in the committee of supply and it was passed after a voice vote.

The government said it targets a revenue of N8.155 trillion/N2.64 trillion from oil, N1.8 trillion from non-oil tax revenue and N3.7 trillion from other sources.

The estimates are based on the new value added tax (VAT) rate which was increased from 5% to 7.5%.