Reps pass N17 trillion budget for 2022

The House of Representatives on Tuesday, passed a budget of N17.126 trillion for the 2022 fiscal year against the N16.391 trillion sum presented by the president.

The budget, which was passed after the report of the House Committee on Appropriation was considered and passed by the Committee of Supply, has about N700 billion increase from the N16,391,023,917,692 proposal presented to the parliament by President Muhammadu Buhari in October.

While the major capital, recurrent, debt service, statutory transfers were not touched, the House made provision for an increase by N400 billion for agencies that came forward with financial reports which were not captured in the proposed budget, including the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), Ministries of Humanitarian Affairs, the National Assembly, among others.

In passing the bill, the lawmakers also made provision for 10 per cent of funds recovered by EFCC and the National Financial Intelligence Unit to be utilised by the agencies for their operations.