President Buhari accuses National Assembly of inflating 2023 budget by about 1trillion
President Muhammadu Buhari has signed Nigeria’s 2023 budget of N21.83 trillion along with the 2022 Supplementary Appropriation Bill into law.
Speaking while signing the bill into law on Tuesday, he, however, revealed that the Senate and House of Representatives included N770 billion in new projects in the 2023 budget proposal and raised the provisions made by ministries, departments, and agencies by N58.55 billion.
Premium Times reports that Buhari said he still needed to sign the budget to allow for quick implementation as his administration’s tenure comes to an end in few months.
The president also said he had directed the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, to engage with the legislature to revisit some of the changes made to the executive budget proposal.
Buhari said; “We have examined the changes made by the National Assembly to the 2023 Executive Budget proposal. The amended fiscal framework for 2023 as approved by the National Assembly shows additional revenues of N765.79 billion, and an unfunded deficit of N553.46 billion.
“It is clear that the National Assembly and the executive need to capture some of the proposed additional revenue sources in the fiscal framework. This must be rectified.
“I have also noted that the National Assembly introduced new projects into the 2023 budget proposal for which it has appropriated N770.72 billion. The National Assembly also increased the provisions made by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) by N58.55 billion.
“Nonetheless, considering the imminent transition process to another democratically elected government, I decided to sign the 2023 appropriation bill into law as passed by the National Assembly to enable its implementation to commence without delay.”
Also, the president noted that the aggregate expenditures of N21.83 trillion is an increase of N1.32 trillion over the initial Executive Proposal for a total expenditure of N20.51 trillion.
