The House of Representatives on Thursday passed through the second reading a bill to regulate the planning, preparation, passage and execution of the budget of the Federal Government of Nigeria.
The bill is particularly aimed at making the January to December budget cycle introduced by the 9th Assembly a law.
Sponsored by Abbas Tajudeen from Kaduna State, the proposed legislation seeks to among others, define the budget cycle and timeline for each stage of the appropriation process.
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In a lead debate on the general principles of the Bill, Tajudeen said it intends to ensure that the January 1 to December 31 timeline be embedded in the Act as the sacrosanct period within which every budget in the federation should be formulated.
He said, “It should serve as an organic budget law. It should also complement the Constitution on the management of public finance. It should make the participation of stakeholders in the budget process mandatory.
“It should define how budget projections should be funded. It should define the limit of deficit in each budget through borrowing.”
