President Muhammadu Buhari Tuesday lashed out at the federal lawmakers for inserting N887.99bn worth of projects into the N17.126tn 2022 budget.
He consequently asked the legislators to expunge the inserted projects for the usage of the N887.99bn as originally proposed. Buhari who made the demand through separate letters written to the Senate President Ahmad Lawan and Speaker of the House of Representatives,
Hon Femi Gbajabiamila, also proposed N2.557tn as an additional fund for fuel subsidy in the 2022 fiscal year.
The President in the letter read during plenary in Senate, also accused the lawmakers of making unnecessary incursions into operational areas of the executive by inserting N16.5bn into service-wide votes component of the Executive.
The letter reads in part: “As I indicated at the signing of the 2022 Appropriation Act, I forward herewith the Proposals for the amendment of the 2022 Appropriation Act (as detailed in Schedules I-V), for the kind consideration and approval by the Senate.
“You will agree with me that the inclusion of National Assembly’s expenditures in the Executive Budget negates the principles of separation of Powers and financial autonomy of the Legislature. It is therefore necessary to transfer the National Assembly’s expenditures totaling N16.59bn in the Service Wide Vote to the National Assembly Statutory Transfer provision (see Schedule l).
“I urge you to roll back some of the N887.99bn of projects earlier inserted in the budget by the National Assembly to accommodate these amendments.
“It is equally important to reinstate the N25.81bn cut from the provision for the Power Sector Reform Programme in order to meet the Federal Government’s commitment under the financing plan agreed with the World Bank.
“In addition, it is necessary to reinstate the four (4) capital projects totaling N1.42bn in the Executive Proposal for the Federal Ministry of Water Resources that were removed in the 2022 Appropriation Act. “N106, 160, 499, 52 for Capital Expenditures and N43,870,592,044 for Recurrent Expenditures. I, therefore, request the National Assembly to make the above amendments without increasing the budget deficit.
“However, following the suspension of the PMS subsidy removal, the 2022 Budget Framework has been revised to fully provide for PMS subsidy (see Schedule V). An additional provision of N2.557tn will be required to fund the petrol subsidy in 2022.
Consequently, the Federation Account (Main Pool) revenue for the three tiers of government is projected to decline by N2tn, while FGN’s share from the Account is projected to reduce by N1.05tn.
Therefore, the amount available to fund the FGN Budget is projected to decline by N969.09 billion. “Aggregate expenditure is projected to increase by N45.85bn, due to additional domestic debt service provision of N102.5bn net of the reductions in Statutory Transfers by N56.67bn, as follows: NDDC, by N12.6bn from N102.78 billion to N90.18 billion;
NEDC, by N5.90 billion from N48.08 billion to N42.18 billion; UBEC, by N19.08 billion from N112.29 billion to N93.21 billion; Basic Health Care Fund, by N 9.54bn from N56.14bn to N46.60 billion; and NASENI, by N9.54bn from N56.14bn to N46.60bn. “Total budget deficit is projected to increase by N1.01tn to N7.40 trillion, representing 4.01% of GDP. The incremental deficit will be financed by new borrowings from the domestic market. “Furthermore, there is a critical and urgent need to restore the N3bn cut from the provision made for payment of mostly long outstanding Local Contractors’ Debts and Other Liabilities as part of our strategy to reflate the economy and spur growth (see Schedule I). “It is also imperative to reinstate the N22.0bn cut from the provision for Sinking Fund to Retire Mature Loans to ensure that the government can meet its obligations under already issued bonds as and when they mature