March 28, (THEWILL) – The Senate, on Tuesday, passed two bills seeking to extend the implementation of the capital components of the 2022 budget till June 30, 2023.
The 2022 appropriation act (amendment) bill and the 2022 supplementary appropriation act (amendment) bill are those that passed the reading.
In the revised 2022 budget passed in April 2022, the National Assembly earmarked N5.4 trillion for capital expenditure.
The extension followed a lead debate by the Senate leader, Senator Gobir Ibrahim (Sokoto East-Senate Leader), requesting the upper chamber for the amendment of the Appropriation act 2022.
In his presentation, Abdullahi said the bills seek to amend the 2022 appropriation act and 2022 supplementary appropriation act to extend the implementation year from March 31 to June 30.
He said the National Assembly had extended the implementation of the 2022 Appropriation Act from Dec 31 2022 to March 31, 2023.
This, he said, was to allow full implementation of the budget, given the approval of the supplementary budget approved in December 2022.
Abdullahi said the extension had allowed Ministries Department and Agencies (MDAs) to use a large proportion of funds released to them.
He, however, said significant amounts of funds remained with MDAs and would require a further extension to be fully extended.
According to Abdullahi, given the critical importance of some key projects nearing completion, request for further extension of the expiration clause in the appropriation act and the long title explanatory memorandum of the supplementary appropriation act was expedient.
This, he said, was to avoid compounding the problem of abandoned projects, given that some of the projects were not provided for in the 2023 budget.
Abdullahi urged senators to support the bill to allow full utilisation of the capital releases to help reflate the economy
The lawmakers relaxed their standing rules to grant accelerated consideration and approval to enable it to read the Bill for the first, second and third time before its passage.
The Senate leader had explained that the extension will enable the government to implement key projects in the capital component of the 2022 budget and allow for the completion of ongoing projects critical to the current administration.
He said, “You will recall that the National Assembly extended the implementation of the 2022 Appropriation Act from 31st December 2022 to 31st March 2023.
“This was to allow full implementation of the budget, especially in the light of the 2022 Supplementary budget approved in December 2022, the extension had allowed MDAs to utilise a large proportion of funds released to them.
“However, significant amounts of funds remain with MDAs and will require a further extension to be fully expended.
“Giving the critical importance of some key projects nearing completion, requesting a further extension of the expiration clause in the Appropriation ( Amendment) Act, 2022 and the Long Title and Explanatory Memorandum of the Supplementary Appropriation Act is expedient to avoid compounding the problem of abandoned projects, given that some of the projects were not provided for in the 2023 Budget”.
In his contribution, Senator Gabriel Suswam (PDP, Benue Northeast) backed the request to extend the budget, he, however, added that it should be spelt out that the 2022 budget will run concurrently with the 2023 Appropriation Act
The Senate dissolved into “Committee of Supply” to consider the report before it eventually approved and passed the request to extend the life of the 2022 budget till June 30th, 2023.
