The Senate and the House of Representatives yesterday separately approved N4, 608 trillion in federal spending for 2010. This is N1.5 trillion more than the 2009 budget, and N529 billion above the original amount sent for approval by President Umaru Yar'Adua a little more than four months ago.

The difference between this budget and the preceding year's is the largest in five years, and the Senate said money will be ploughed into extricating the nation's frail economy out of the recent global economic crisis, through "targeted interventions".

As usual however, the financial plan earmarks N1.853 trillion for development (capital expenditure),

While the non-debt (recurrent) expenditure grabbed the larger share of N2.007 trillion, although both chambers claimed they had scaled down Mr. Yar'Adua's initial recurrent proposal, to save money for the capital budget.

Some of the rescued money will be directed to key areas like works and housing, power generation and transmission, and agriculture and water resources, which, according to the budget, get a major chunk of the funding. Each of the sectors, including transport and the Federal Capital Territory, will receive more than N100 billion for new projects if the Acting President, Goodluck Jonathan, signs the bill into law.

For the capital expenditure outlay, the plan approves the largest amount of N211.2 billion for the construction of roads and housing, through the Ministry of Works and Housing, although the amount is still some N10 billion less than what Mr. Yar'Adua had originally asked for.

The capital expenditure of the Niger-Delta ministry almost doubles fromN47 billion to N91 billion for this year. The huge increase reflects the financial assurances made as part of the post-amnesty program.

Education gets reprieve

Education got a boost after the allocation for capital expenditure jumped from N38 billion in 2009 to N97.2 million for this year. The total figure, including recurrent expenditure is N295.3 billion which is the highest amount ever allocated to the sector. The allocation however amounts to just about 6.4 percent of the overall budget - a distant mark from the United Nations recommended 26 per cent for developing nations. This is coming against the backdrop of the dismal performance in the recently released National Examination Council (NECO) result in which 98 per cent of the candidates failed.

Allocations to other key sectors like health and Science and technology, have all remained relatively low. Health receives an allocation of N180 billion which is less than 5 per cent of the total budget.

The lawmakers however reviewed upward, the allocations to the National Assembly, raising the capital expenditure from N9 billion to N16.19 billion, and the recurrent from N118.78 billion to N138 billion.

During the initial consideration of the budget last year, lawmakers questioned the president's economic plan, and the projections for the 2010 budget; the exchange rate, and crude oil benchmark and the gross domestic product rate.

Members of the House of Representatives argued that in using such benchmarks as $50 per barrel of crude oil and N150 to the dollar as exchange rate, the president's indicators were too "conservative" and not reflective of an economy hoping to become one of the world's largest by 2020.

The final approval for the budget, however, passed after both arms reviewed the benchmark oil price to $67 per barrel with a production average of 2.35 million barrels per day. The exchange rate remains targeted at N150 to the dollar.

Based on the indicators, the budget expects net revenue of N3.086 trillion for the year, leaving a deficit plan of N1.521 trillion.

Lawmakers pushed through the adoption of their Appropriation committees' recommendations yesterday without deleting or altering any of the figures, a week after the legislators announced that consideration for the budget will soon begin.

Iyiosola Omisore, who heads the Senate Appropriation committee, said the budget would have been passed earlier, save for the unending "series of correspondences" from the executive which kept calling for fresh adjustments.

"For instance, we received the last correspondence for the adjustment on 8th March, 2010," he told his colleagues. "We advise that the executive should complete their work on time and minimize further submission after presentation of the initial proposal," he said.

The first adjustment the National Assembly received was days after the initial submission on November 23, 2009 by the Special Adviser on National Assembly matters, Mohammed Abba-Aji.

Mr. Omisore said in the end, the executive requests for adjustment stood at N336 billion, raising the initial N4,079 trillion budget to N4,415 trillion and leading to a final approval for N4,608 trillion.

With the passage, Mr Jonathan will be expected to sign the financial bill into law, although the Assembly is yet to harmonise its decisions on whether or not to approve the request by the government to operate a Special Funds Account - the equivalent of the controversial excess crude account.

The Senate passed its version, authorizing the controversial account, while the Representatives deleted the provision that mandates the government to keep a separate account other than the constitution-backed Consolidated Revenue Account.

Link:

http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/Home/5546255-146/story.csp