President Muhammadu Buhari has asked the National Assembly to remove N887.99 billion worth of projects inserted into the 2022 budget.
The president, who identified over 130 projects in the budget that should be deleted, also queried the lawmakers for including their own expenditure (of projects worth 16 billion) in the budget of the Executive.
This, he said, negates the principles of separation of powers and financial autonomy of the Legislature.
Mr Buhari’s request was contained in a letter to the National Assembly seeking amendments to the 2022 Appropriation Act where he also asked the lawmakers to approve N2.55 trillion to fund subsidy in 2022.
The letter was read out at the start of plenary in both the Senate and House of Representatives.
Mr Buhari’s request to the National Assembly comes about two months after he queried them for making worrisome changes to the 2022 budget.
Some of the changes, he had noted, are the increase in the federal government’s projected ‘Independent Revenue’ by N400 billion; for which, he said, the justification is yet to be provided.
Queries
In the letter, the president said it was imperative to remove all capital projects that were replicated in the 2022 Appropriation Act.
He identified 139 of the 254 projects in the budget totalling N13.24 billion to be deleted.
He also emphasised the need to reinstate four capital projects of N1.4 billion in the Executive Proposal for the Federal Ministry of Water Resources; and N22.0 billion cut from the provision for the Sinking Fund to retire mature loans needed to meet government’s obligations under already issued bonds.
He explained that N106.1 billion has been earmarked for capital expenditures and N43.8 billion for recurrent expenditure and then asked the lawmakers to make room for the amendments by removing inserted projects.
“I therefore request the National Assembly to make the above amendments without increasing the budget deficit.
“I urge you to roll back some of the N887.99 billion of projects earlier inserted in the budget by the National Assembly to accommodate these amendments,” part of the letter read.
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