President Buhari has written to the Senate seeking a review of the 2022 Appropriation Act passed by the National Assembly in December, 2021 to accommodate additional N2.557 trillion for petrol subsidy in 2022.
The President’s request was contained in a letter dated February 10, 2022, and read during plenary by the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan.
“It has become necessary to present this amendment proposal considering the impacts of the recent suspension of the Petroleum Motor Spirit (PMS) subsidy removal.
“The suspension of the PMS subsidy removal, the 2022 Budget Framework has been revised to fully provide for PMS subsidy. An additional provision of N2.557 trillion 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 N2.00 trillion, while FGN’s share from the Account is projected to reduce by N1.05 trillion. Therefore, the amount available to fund the FGN Budget is projected to decline by N969.09 billion”.
The President said his letter had become necessary because of the implications certain changes by lawmakers in the 2022 Appropriation Act could have for the successful implementation of the budget”.
To this end, the President asked the lawmakers to roll back some of the N887.99 billion of projects earlier inserted in the budget by the National Assembly to accommodate the amendments he seeks.
These included all capital projects replicated in the 2022 Appropriation Act by the National Assembly.
Buhari said a total of 139 out of the 254 projects in the budget totaling N13.24 billion had been identified for deletion.
Buhari, therefore, requested the National Assembly to amend the Appropriation Act to provide for Capital Expenditures in the sum of N106,161,499,052 billion naira; and N43,870,592,044 billion naira for Recurrent Expenditures.
“It is important to restore the provisions made for various key capital projects in the 2022 Executive Proposal (see details in Schedule l) that were cut by the National Assembly. This is to ensure that critical ongoing projects that are cardinal to this administration, and those nearing completion, do not suffer a setback due to reduced funding”.
“It is equally important to reinstate the N25.81 billion 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 N1.42 billion in the Executive Proposal for the Federal Ministry of Water Resources that were removed in the 2022 Appropriation Act.
The President further asked the National Assembly to also restore the N3 billion 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)”.
He said it was also imperative to reinstate the N22.0 billion cut by the National Assembly from the provision for Sinking Fund to Retire Mature Loans to ensure that government can meet its obligations under already issued bonds as and when they mature.
The President noted that the cuts made from provisions for the recurrent spending of Nigeria’s Foreign Missions, which are already constrained, are capable of causing serious embarrassment to the country as they mostly relate to office and residential rentals.
The President said similar reductions in provisions for allowances payable to personnel of the Nigerian Navy and Police Formations and Commands could create serious issues for government and should be reinstated.
All of these was as the President asked the Federal lawmakers to immediately remove all the other items smuggled into the budgets of the Ministry of Transportation, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Office of the Head of Civil Service of the Federation.
“There are several other projects that have been included by the National Assembly in the budgets of agencies that are outside their mandate areas.”
“The Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning has been directed to work with your relevant Committees to comprehensively identify and realign all such misplaced projects”.
Buhari also observed that the Federal lawmakers had somehow included the National Assembly expenditures totaling N16.59 billion in the budget of the executive and asked that it should be rectified because according to him it violates the principles of Separation of Power and financial autonomy of the legislature.
“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 N16.59 billion in the Service Wide Vote to National Assembly Statutory Transfer provision”.
