VANGUARD NEWS

The House of Representatives has passed the 2022 budget into law. The House also increased figure from N16,391,023,917,692 to N17,126,873,917,692.

Christened “Budget of Economic Growth and Sustainability”, it will be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari presented the budget estimates before a joint session of the House on October 7.

Originally, the budget consists of Statutory Transfer of N869,667,187,542; Debt Service of N3,879,952,981,550 and Recurrent (Non-Debt) Expenditure  of  N6,909,849,788,737 and Capital Expenditure of N5,467,403,959 863

Giving his report shortly before the House dissolved into Committee of Supply for the clause-by-clause consideration of the report, the Chairman, House Committee on Appropriations, Mukhtar Betera, gave the highlights of the budget.

He said: “The House debated on the General principles of the Bill on Tuesday through Thursday, October 14, read it a second time, and consequently referred same to the Committee on Appropriations for further legislative action.

“The Committees on Appropriations of both the House and Senate met and drew up a work plan to guide the processing of the Appropriation Bill, which was approved by the National Assembly leadership.

“Subsequently, the Committee engaged its Sub-Committee Chairmen on Monday, October 18, on the approved time table and relevant guidelines provided for the processing of the Bill.

“Sub-Committees were given both the hard and soft copies of the schedules of the budgetary proposal under their jurisdiction for detailed analysis and consideration.

“An additional guideline provided to Chairmen of the Sub-Committees directed them not to tamper with the N1,153.823,207,500 MultiLateral/Bi-Lateral Project-tied Loans in the capital component of the proposed budget in their deliberations and consideration.

“In the same vein, on conclusion of work on the 2022 budget engagement/defense with MDAs under their jurisdiction, Sub-Committees submitted and defended their reports before the Appropriations Committee from Wednesday 10th to Friday, November 26.

Revenue projection for the 2022 budget

“The 2022 Budget Report is predicated on the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework/Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF/FSP) approved by the National Assembly.

“Daily Oil Production 1.88mbpd 1.88mbpd 2 Benchmark Oil Price 57US$ 62US$ 3. Exchange Rate N410.15US$1 N410.15US$1 4 GDP Growth Rate 42% 4.2% 5 Inflation Rate 13% 13% “.

Highlights of the 2022 Appropriations Bill

“The 2022 Appropriation Bill contains the following highlights: Aggregate Expenditure – 17,126,873,917,692; Statutory Transfer N869,667,187,542; Recurrent Expenditure -N6,909,849,788.737; Capital Expenditure N5,467,403 959,863; Debt Service N3,869,952,981.550).

Observations/Recommendations

There was a special intervention as a result of the increase in Oil Price Benchmark from US$57 to US$62;

Provision was made for more funds to critical sectors for purposes of execution of their core mandate;

The need for stimulation of the economy through increased capital expenditure; such as will make for infrastructural development, in order to meet the yearnings of the people;

There was an increase in revenue to Government Owned Enterprises (GOEs) and independent revenue of the MDAs by N400 billion as a result of the independent report received from the investigation carried out on all government agencies by the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) and the various Committees of the National Assembly, in their oversight roles.

The deficit was increased by N98 billion to accommodate some other requests of national importance not provided for in the budget estimates and which could not be covered by the revenue increase.

The following recommendations are hereby made:

“An increase in oil price Benchmark from US$57 to US$62 to reflect the current market values of the oil barrel in the international market.

“The additional revenue increase be allocated to the agencies that came forward with additional financial report which was not provided for in the budget.

“The agencies include: Works and Housing, INEC (for 2023 General Elections), Defence, National Population Commission (NPC) – for 2022 Population Census, Agriculture and Rural Development, National Security Adviser (NSA), National Assembly (Constituency Outreach) Education, Humanitarian, Water Resources, etc. given that the requests will take care of critical infrastructural deficit for purposes of national development improvement and acceleration.

“The additional N98 Billion increase in deficit be approved to take care of some of the additional requests from the executive”.

Sectoral Allocation

Details of the budget showed the sectoral allocations of some Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs.

In the recurrent (Non-Debt) Expenditure, the Presidency got N61,079,757,342; Defence N996,091,292,618; Ministry of Foreign Affairs N79,243,483,198; Federal Ministry of Information & Culture 55,796,274,038;

Ministry of Interior, N257,626,461,524; Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation N7,919,353,247; Auditor General for the Federation 4,476,854,068;

Federal Ministry of Police Affairs, 518,532,292,470 and Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy N23,387,996,618.

Others were the National Security Adviser N155,820,214,009; Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, N1,344,674,257; Secretary to the Government of the Federation, 62,575,420,244; Federal Ministry of Special Duties & Inter-Governmental Affairs N4,439,614,685; Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural

Development N75,544,228,649; Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning N28,604,104,969; Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment N17,966,745,438; Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment N14,453,726,978;

Federal Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation N49,683,523,165; Federal Ministry of Transport N15,892,132,819 ; Federal Ministry of Aviation, N7,692,548,460; Federal Ministry of Power N6,262,156,943; Ministry of Petroleum Resources, N30,502,257,191;

Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, N12,038,392,758; Federal Ministry of Works and Housing N31,935,604,197, ; national Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission N870,534,226; Fiscal Responsibility Commission, 456,245,928;

Federal Ministry of Water Resources, 10,669,058,320; Federal Ministry of Justice N26,761,780,448; Independent Corrupt Practices and Related Offences Commission N11,655,253,717; Federal Ministry of Niger Delta HQTRS, 2,569,680,304;

Federal Ministry of Youth & Sports Development, 185,489,102,966; Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, 2,103,758,084 and Federal Ministry of Education N593,473,925,256.

Similarly in the capital expenditue, Presidency got N45,758,904,520; Defence N204,621,431,758; Ministry of Foreign Affairs N9,183,529,439; Federal Ministry of Information & Culture, 23,610,782,123; Ministry of Interior, 36,948,676,100; Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation N3,026,248,123; Auditor General for the Federation, 218,969,387; Federal Ministry of Police Affairs N40,574,453,367 and Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy N9,649,235,047.

Others were National Security Adviser, 58,887,788,000; Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission, 259,719,353; Secretary to the Government of the Federation, 66,130,177,985; Federal Ministry of Special Duties & Inter -Governmental Affairs N8,524,905,899;

Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development N285,305,424,564; Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning N145,129,615,054; Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment N67,069,067,284;

Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, N58,359,476,178; Federal Ministry of Transport N93,677,434,179; Federal Ministry of Aviation, 56,820,263,715; Federal Ministry of Power, 79,422,718,179; Ministry of Petroleum Resources, 3,878,787,401;

Federal Ministry of Works and Housing, 470,135,327,662; National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, 227,102,720; Fiscal Responsibility Commission, N658,142,071; Federal Ministry of Water Resources, N130,214,561,569;

Federal Ministry of Justice, 34,913,120,223; Independent Corrupt Practices and Related Offences Commission N2,340,020,000; Federal Capital Territory Administration, N26,196,374,427; Federal Ministry of Niger Delta Headquarters, N22,135,641,207; Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, 8,440,222,433; Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, N14,988,528,629;

Federal Ministry of Education N159,664,214,508; Dederal Ministry of Health, N130,086,441,838; Federal Ministry of Environment Headquarters N22,366,545,885; National Population Commission, 180,631,924,210 and Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, N80,141,015,453.

Similarly, the House also passed the 2022 Finance Bill into law

The passage was consequent upon the consideration of the report presented by the Chairman, House Committee on Finance, James Faleke.

“Report on a Bill for an Act to Amend the Capital Gains Tax Act, Companies Income Tax Act, Federal Inland Revenue Service (Establishment) Act, Personal Income Tax Act, Stamp Duties Act, Tertiary Education Trust Fund (Establishment) Act, Value Added Tax Act, Insurance Act, Nigerian Police Trust Fund (Establishment) Act, National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure Act, Finance Control and management Act, Fiscal responsibility Act; and for Related Matters,” he said.

The report was later considered and passed by the House.