Senate, Reps Pass 2020 Budget

The Senate and the House of Representatives have both passed the 2020 budget with a significant increase.

It was gathered that the National Assembly is a major beneficiary of the increase.

The President proposed N10.33Trillion while the Appropriations committees on both Chamber recommended N10.59Trillion.

The breakdown of the budget revealed that out of the N263 billion increment, the National Assembly increased its budget from N125 billion to N128billion.

The House on Thursday passed harmonized version, which Senate had earlier passed.

The House also passed a motion to ensure that the budget runs from 1st of January to December 31st 2020.

Speaking on the increment, the Chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, Muktar Batera disclosed that it is to ensure social intervention.

The new budget appropriated N110billion for the Judiciary, Niger-Delta Development Commission got N808 billion.

Similarly, the Senate also increased Oil Benchmark Price to $57 per barrel as against the proposed $55 but maintained the daily Crude Oil Production rate at 2.18 million per barrel, GDP Growth Rate 2.93 per cent, Inflation Rate 10.81 per cent and Exchange Rate 305/US$1 as proposed by the Executive.

Presenting the report, Senator Jibrin Barau said the increase of N90bn in the budget is to cater for security challenges in the country, packages for lawmakers and support for Zamfara State.

President Muhammadu Buhari presented the budget on 8th October ,2019 which the 9th Senate said it would pass the budget before end of the year in order to revert the nation’s financial year to run from January to December.