The House of Representatives said on Monday that each
item in the N7 29tn budgeted for 2017 would be
subjected to a thorough review by the National Assembly.
It noted that until such a review was done by various
standing committees and approved by the legislature, the
budget remained mere proposals by President
Muhammadu Buhari.
The Chairman, House Committee on Media and Public
Affairs, Mr. Abdulrazak Namdas, who spoke with The
PUNCH in Abuja, explained that lawmakers would ensure
that the controversies,which nearly marred the 2016
budget, would not be replicated with that of 2017.
Namdas, a member of the All Progressives Congress
from Adamawa State, stated, “We have received the
budget proposals from Mr. President. We now have a duty
as lawmakers to look at
the items one after another.
“The first step is that every member will get copies of the
budget to study and this will assist them in pointing out
key areas for the attention of the House.
“As soon as we reconvene in January, work on the details
of the budget will begin.” Asked whether lawmakers
would increase the budget size,
Namdas replied that the size was already “huge.”
He added, “N7.29tn is a huge amount; increasing it is not
likely the way to go.
“However, the budget is the document eventually passed
by the National Assembly.
“Nigerians should be patient till we reconvene in
January.”
The President had, on Wednesday, December 14, la!d the
estimates of the budget before a joint session of the
Senate and the House in Abuja.
The budget of “economic recovery and growth” is 20 per
cent higher than the N6.06tn budgeted for 2016.
Its total capital component of N2.24tn is also higher than
that of 2016 by 30.7 per cent, a projection Buhari said
was made to spend more on infrastructure, solid minerals
development,
agriculture and provide support for local manufacturing
firms to speed up growth.
Spending on recurrent expenditure is put at N2.98tn.
Although the budget’s anticipated revenue of N4.9tn is
higher than that of 2016 by 28 per cent, it has a deficit of
N2.36tn, representing
2.18 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product.
The President told lawmakers that the deficit would be
financed through a projected borrowing of N2.32tn,
broken into N1.06tn (external) and N1.25tn (domestic).
