The Senate on Thursday, approved the N10.8 trillion revised 2020 budget. The budget was passed by the senate a day after the house of representative passed the same figure.
The new budget is N211 billion higher than the previous budget of N10.594 trillion which was passed in December 2019 by the legislative chamber.
The budget was passed following a report presentation by the chairman of the appropriation committee, Jibrin Barau. It will become operational when President Buhari assents to it.
Due to the shortfall in government revenue, following the fall in oil prices and the economic impact of Covid-19 pandemic, the budget which was previously passed in December 2019 was revised down to N10.509 trillion in April.
However, the passed budget was significantly higher than the revised budget by N296 billion.
N4.938 trillion (45.7%) was allocated to recurrent (non-debt) expenditure while N2.488 trillion (23.03%) is for contribution to the development fund for capital expenditure.
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N2.951 trillion (27.31%) was allocated for debt servicing, out of which domestic debts got N1.873 trillion while foreign debts took N805.470 billion. Sinking Fund to Retire Maturing Loans was allotted N272. 900 billion, while statutory transfer got total of N422.775 billion.
On Wednesday, Chairman of the Appropriation Committee, Jibrin Barau, said the presidency refused to capture the N186 billion voted for health as part of the entire N500 billion intervention fund for COVID-19 in the appropriation bill.
He said while N314 billion was captured as part of the intervention fund, the balance of N186 billion proposed for the health sector, was not.
Thus the senate passed a sum of N500 billion in the budget as an intervention fund for COVID-19 and a sum of N186 billion specifically for the health sector.
For more on the budget break down, see the link below.
Read more; Reps Pass Increased 2020 Budget of N10.805 trillion, Approves $5.51 billion New Borrowing
Written by
Ifunanya Ikueze
