Reps pass N895.8bn supplementary budget for second reading

The House of Representatives Wednesday passed for second reading, the 2021 Supplementary Appropriation Bill (budget) of N895.842 billion transmitted by President Muhammadu Buhari.

President Buhari’s letter, requesting the approval of the 2021 Supplementary Appropriation was read on the floor of the House on Tuesday when the speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila who tasked lawmakers to work assiduously for the budget to be passed within two weeks.

Thus, the Supplementary Appropriation titled: “Bill for an Act to Authorize the issue from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation the total sum of N895, 842, 465, 917 only, of which N173, 445, 506, 664 only is for Recurrent Non–Debt Expenditure, while the sum of N722, 396, 959, 253 only is for contribution to the Development Fund for Capital Expenditure for the year ending 31 December 2021”, was slated for Second Reading.

The majority leader of the House, Alhassan Ado-Doguwa in whose name the Bill stands in a lead debate said the President’s request was based on two main subheads of health and Security and appealed to members to pass the Supplementary Appropriation Bill into law.

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Ado-Doguwa said every member should be concerned about the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, hence the need to make more funds available to the Federal Government to contain the virus, adding that it was also imperative to get additional funds to address the rising insecurity in the country.

There was no debate against the passage of the Supplementary Budget (Appropriation) Bill and it passed through second reading and referred to the House Committee on Appropriation.

Similarly, the House received the report of the public hearing on the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) from Mohammed Monguno’s Adhoc Committee on PIB.

Laying the report, Monguno said: “The House do receive the Report of the Ad-hoc Committee on Petroleum Industry Bill on a Bill for an Act to Provide Legal, Governance, Regulatory and Fiscal Framework for the Nigerian Petroleum Industry, the Development of Host Communities; and for Related Matters, 2021.”

Recall that the Speaker had announced that the lawmakers would pass the long-awaited Bill before their summer break beginning from mid-July.