Senate passes N4.4 trillion 2015 Budget without fuel subsidy provision

Senate yesterday agreed with the House of Representatives on the 2015 Appropriation Bill by passing N4.493trillion as total budget estimates for the year as against N4.357 trillion proposed by the executive in December last year, with a difference of N135.4 billion increase.

The zero budgetary allocation for fuel subsidy was also reflected in the Appropriation Bill passed by the Senate yesterday as that of the House last Thursday.

But the Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Ahmad Maccido (PDP, Sokoto North), at a media briefing after the passage of the budget, said the zero allocation for fuel subsidy should not be construed by Nigerians as total subsidy removal.

He said “for now, there is no budgetary provision for fuel subsidy by the executive, which it may, however, do later through supplementary budget proposal.”
He added that there is the high likelihood of that since the executive in the budget, made provisions for Subsidy Re- Investment and Empowerment Programme (Sure- P), for which the National Assembly has appropriated N21.030billion for 2015 fiscal year.

The budget, which is based on critical assumptions of oil price bench mark of $53per barrel, 2.2782 million barrel of crude oil production per day and an exchange rate of N190 to a U.S. Dollar, has N375, 616, 000. 00billion earmarked for statutory transfers and N953,620, 000 billion for debt servicing.

Others are N2, 607, 132, 491, 708 trillion for recurrent expenditure, N556, 995, 465, 449billions for capital expenditure with a fiscal deficit of N1, 075.3 trillion.

From the N2,007,775,136,033 approved for recurrent (non-debt) expenditure, Education gets the highest allocation of N392,242,784,654, followed by Defence/MOD/Army/Air Force/Navy with N338,797,219,431 and Police formations and commands with N303,822,224,611.

Health got N237,075,742,847; Interior, N153,330,022,460; Youth Development, N69,423,427,479; National Security Adviser, N62,226,771,999; Petroleum Resources, N58,274,429,975; Secretary to the Government of the Federation, N48,389,942,264; Foreign Affairs, N41,649,382,166, Agriculture and Rural Development, N31,869,020,717.
The sum of N26,590,103,366 billion is for Science and Technology; N25,173,916,543 billion for Works; N23,682,420,241 billion for Information; N20,085,865,120 billion for the Presidency; N18,081,478,935 billion for Tourism, Culture and National Orientation; N15,559,334,341billion for Environment; N10,941,859,480 billion for Trade and Investment while N10,592,048,381 is for Communication Technology.

From the N13,965,664,092 billion approved for the eight federal executive bodies, the sum of N5,293,800,054 is for National Population Commission; N1,935,767,344 for Code of Conduct Bureau; N493,656,088 for Code of Conduct Tribunal; N2,207,213,456 for Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission; N1,125,005,114 for Federal Civil Service Commission; N740,477,185 for Police Service Commission and N2,167,931,068 for Federal Character Commission.
From the sum of N231,058,494,343 billion approved for Service Wide Votes, N20.270 billion is for Zaman Lafiya; N22 billion for operations – Internal – for the Armed Forces; N9.6 billion for payment to Nigerian Army Quick Response Group, including arrears; N5 billion for payment of outsourced services; N2.3 billion for entitlements of former presidents/heads of state and vice presidents/chiefs of general staff; N5.5 billion for Employees’ Compensation Act – Employees Compensation Fund; N17.5 billion for general election logistic support; N17,397,993,277 for contingency; N6 billion for country’s contribution to West African Examination Council (WAEC); N4.5 billion for assessed contribution to African Union and others; N5 billion for margin for increases in costs; N11 billion for external financial obligations; N3,099,600,000 for recurrent adjustment; N38,987,017,746 for public service wage adjustment for MDAs (including arrears of promotion and salary increases) while N11.755 billion is for improved remuneration package for Nigeria Police.

The sum of 60,251,158,887 is for payment into the redemption fund (15per cent of total personnel cost); N18 billion for arrears of 33per cent increase in pension rates; N3.750 billion for arrears of police death benefits (2004-2010); N14,690,036,516 for Group Life Insurance for all MDAs, including DSS; N1 billion for Armed Forces enhanced retirement benefits of commodores and above; N2.995 billion for severance benefits of Delta Steel Company/pension pay-off; N3,544,110,811 for NHIS (military retirees), and N36 million for administration and monitoring of (OHCSF) Group Life.

From the total sum of N63,281,093,786 earmarked for presidential amnesty programme, the stipends and allowances of 30,000 Niger Delta ex-militants is to gulp N23.625 billion; N5,502,447,783 is for presidential amnesty operational cost; N34,153,646,003 for reintegration of transformed ex-militants while reinsertion/transition safety allowances for 3,642 ex-militants (phase 3) got zero allocation.

According to the report, the sum of N498,428,999,699 billion was set aside for capital expenditure of various ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) in addition to the sum of N144.420 billion as capital expenditure in statutory transfers.

Also, from N953.62 billion approved for debt servicing, the sum of N894.610 billion is for domestic debt, while N59.010 is for foreign debts.

The Senate President, David Mark, after the passage of the budget, urged both the outgoing and incoming government to implement it in a way that it would be beneficial to the generality of Nigerians.

But the Chairman, Senate Committee on Public Accounts, Ahmad Lawan (APC Yobe North) dismissed the budget as non implementable, saying the incoming administration will come up with a supplementary budget that will address the urgent needs of Nigerians.

“The constitutional provision is that we should have even passed the budget before now, but due to the exigencies of this period, we have just passed it and we have done our constitutional duty very well. But I believe that the incoming administration will very swiftly bring a request for a supplementary budget, especially because it is going to be a progressive government under Gen. Muhammadu Buhari.

“The supplementary budget will try to balance between the capital and recurrent allocations. The one we have passed is typical of the kind of PDP’s submission to the National Assembly on yearly basis.

“In fact, the budget we have just passed is five to one against the capital allocation, where we just have about N500 billion against N2.6 trillion that is going to recurrent. So, we are going to do a review definitely because the incoming administration will have to bring something of that nature for a supplementary request,” he said.

The Senate Minority Whip, Ganiyu Solomon (APC Lagos West) also said implementation of the budget will pose a problem to the incoming administration. [Newswatch]