The House of Representatives on Thursday passed the 2015 appropriation bill, jacking up the original Executive proposal by N134.5bn.
As a result, the final total figure passed by lawmakers was N4.493tn, up from the N4.357tn, which President Goodluck Jonathan sent to the National Assembly in the last quarter of 2014.
The passage of the financial document came with just 36 days left in the life of the Jonathan administration.
Mr. Zakari Mohammed, House spokesman, however, said by passing the budget, the legislators merely performed their constitutional duty, not minding the fact that there would be a change of government in less than six weeks away.
Mohammed spoke soon after the House rose, explaining that it was up to the President-Elect, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), to work with the budget or make some adjustments.
He said, “The budget is a guiding financial document. For us as a House, we are on course. It is left to the in-coming government to work with or amend it. Any further comments on this will be hasty.”
The major difference in the amount (N425,425,930,000) stated in the Wednesday report and the final amount (N4,493,363,957,158) passed on Thursday, affected only the statutory transfers, which was raised from N366.280bn to N375.616bn.
According to the two documents, Niger Delta Development Commission’s allocation was raised from N45.780bn to N46.720bn; Universal Basic Education’s allocation was raised from N67.3bn to N68.380bn; National Assembly’s allocation was raised from N115bn to N120bn; Public Complaint Commission’s allocation was raised from N2bn to N4bn while National Human Right Commission’s allocation was raised from N1.2bn to N1.516bn.
Meanwhile, the House retained the sums of N73bn for the National Judicial Council and N62bn for the Independent National Electoral Commission.
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