President Muhammad Buhari has written the National Assembly, seeking an amendment to the 2022 Budget to accommodate an additional N2.557 trillion to fund subsidy on petrol, as against the N443 billion already appropriated.
The request was contained in a letter dated February 10, 2022, and read by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila at the resumed plenary yesterday.
The President is asking the NASS for approval of the supplementary budget to provide for subsidy on petroleum products from June to December 2022.
Recall that President Buhari had signed the N17.1 trillion 2022 Budget into law in December 2021, with reservations over some provisions and said the Executive will send amendments to the Appropriation Act to the Legislature.
In the proposed amendment, the President said it was imperative to remove all capital projects that were replicated in the 2022 Budget, stating that 139 out of the 254 projects in the budget, totaling N13.24 bn, had been identified for deletion.
He requested the National Assembly to amend the Appropriation Act to provide for capital expenditures in the sum of N106.161bn and N43.870bn for recurrent expenditures.
Buhari emphasised the need to reinstate four capital projects totaling N1.4bn in the Executive proposal for the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, and N22.0bn cut from the provision for the sinking fund to retire mature loans needed to meet government’s obligations under already Issued Bonds.
In another letter, Buhari requested the Legislature to speedily consider and pass into law Civil Defence, Correctional, Federal Fire and Immigration Services Board Bill, 2022. The Bill seeks to establish the Civil Defence, Correctional, Federal Fire and Immigration Services Board to adequately reflect the current relationship between the Board, Corps and the Services and align the composition structure, functions and practices to attain the mandate of the services.
The President is also asking the lawmakers to review the Finance Act 2021 as well as bring back some of the projects deliberately removed from the 2022 Budget by the National Assembly.
