After weeks of delays, the Senate has finally scheduled to begin the process of amending the 2013 Appropriation Act on Wednesday (today).
Given that the bill was read for the first time when President Goodluck Jonathan’s letter was read on the floor of the Senate in March, Wednesday’s business will centre on the general debates for the second reading of the amendment bill.
The scheduled business regarding the 2013 Budget Amendment Bill is contained in the Senate’s Notice Paper published on Tuesday.
The National Assembly had passed a total of N4.987tn in December 2012 as the budget for this year, which was signed into law by the President.
Of the sum, a total of N388.06bn was for statutory transfers; N591.76bn for debt servicing; N2.42tn for recurrent expenditure; while the balance of N1.588tn was for capital expenditure.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Rules and Business, Senator Ita Enang, denied earlier speculation that the President’s request for amendment did not come with the details.
“We received the amendment with the details from the President and we are going to look at it,” he said.
Enang also noted that the misgivings on the bill by senators would only be expressed when it came to the floor for debate, adding that it would be difficult to aggregate the opinions of senators whether they opposed it or accepted it now.
“The general attitude of senators toward the bill will be expressed when they make their inputs on the floor, it will not be possible to say whether senators are against it or not now,” he added.
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