The House of Representatives has received the report of the 2017 Appropriations Bill. Laying the report at its plenary session on Tuesday, 9th May, 2017, Hon. Bala Dawaki, Chairman, Committee on Appropriations stated that the Bill sought to authorize the sum of N7,441,175,486,758 (Seven Trillion, Four Hundred and Forty-One Billion, One Hundred and Seventy Five Million, Four Hundred and Eighty Six Thousand, Seven Hundred and Fifty Eight Naira Only) from the Consolidated Revenue Fund. The breakdown of the total sum (which is an additional N143 billion more than what President Buhari laid before the Joint session at the National Assembly) on 14th December 2016 is as follows:
Statutory Transfers- 434,412,950,249 (Four hundred and thirty-four billion, four hundred and twelve million, nine hundred and fifty thousand, two hundred and forty nine naira) only
Debt Service – 1,841,345,727,206 (One trillion, eight hundred and forty one billion, three hundred and forty five million, seven hundred and twenty seven thousand, two and six naira)only
Recurrent (Non-Debt) Expenditure- 177,460,296,707 (One hundred and seventy seven billion, four hundred and sixty million, two hundred and ninety six thousand, seven hundred and seven naira) only
Contribution to the Development Fund for Capital Expenditure (exclusive of capital expenditure in statutory transfers) for the year ending on the 31st December 2017 – 2,174,496,775,867(two trillion, one hundred and seventy four billion, four hundred and ninety six million, seven hundred and seventy five thousand, eight hundred and sixty seven naira) only
In a similar development, the report on the 2017 Appropriation Bill was also laid before the Senate. However, while the Senate was silent on the sum to be authorized from the Consolidated Revenue Fund, it is expected that the figure will concur with the sum submitted in the House Report, which has been harmonized by both chambers. The Senate has promised to pass the 2017 budget on Thursday, 11th May 2017.
