Reps to pass 2018 budget Wednesday

The House of Representatives on Tuesday said the 2018 Appropriation Bill of N9.12 trillion would be passed on Wednesday.

Deputy Speaker of the House, Yussuff Lasun, who presided at plenary, made this known after the budget report was presented by the Chairman, Committee on Appropriation, Rep. Mustapha Dawaki.

The N9.12 trillion-Budget is N410 billion higher than N8.61 trillion appropriated in 2017.

Lasun advised members to pick copies of the budget from the appropriation committee as the House was likely to pass the budget on Wednesday.

Controversy had trailed the delay in the passage of the bill, with the National Assembly accusing Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of failing to defend their budget proposals.

The delay had prompted President Muhammadu Buhari to issue a deadline to heads of all MDAs to defend their budgets unfailingly.

A breakdown of the budget indicates that N530.4 billion is for statutory transfer, N2.20 trillion for debt service and N199 billion for sinking fund for maturing loans.

Also, N3.51 trillion is allocated to recurrent (non-debt) expenditure, while N2.87 trillion is earmarked for development fund for capital expenditure.