Reps approve Buhari’s N819.54bn domestic loan request for capital projects

The House of Representatives has approved President Muhammadu Buhari’s request of N819.54bn domestic loan meant to fix the infrastructure destroyed by floods across the country.

The approval followed the adoption of a report presented by the Chairman House Committee on Appropriation, Rep. Muktar Betara, at the plenary on Wednesday.

Buhari had last week sought the approval of the lawmakers for N819.54bn supplementary budget in a letter read by the Speaker, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila

The President said the request was meant for the capital expenditure component of the 2022 budget.

The new borrowing increased the Federal Government’s domestic borrowing in 2022 to N3.33trn.

Presenting the report, Betara explained that the total sum of N819, 536,937,813 was for the under-mentioned Ministries, “Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development N69,247,175,770

Others are: Federal Ministry of Works and Housing N704,789,762,043, Federal Capital Territory N30,000,000,000 and Federal Ministry of Water Resources N15,500,000,000.

Also, the lawmakers passed the Finance bill, 2022 which was transmitted to them by President Muhammadu Buhari to provide support for the funding of the 2023 budget.

The Finance Bill 2022 proposed amendments to a number of fiscal laws such as the capital gains tax, company income tax, customs excise tariff Act.

Others are; Federal Inland Revenue Service Act, personal income tax and stamp duties act.

The passage followed the adoption of report presented by the Chairman, Committee on Finance, Rep. James Abiodun Faleke.

The House also considered and approved the total expenditure of N262billion for Federal Inland Revenue (FIRS) for the fiscal year 2023.

The approval followed the consideration and adoption of the report presented by Chairman, Committee on Finance, Rep. James Faleke.

Presenting the report, Faleke said that from the total sum, N126,070,912,538 was for Personnel Cost, while N96,061,565,065 was for Overhead Cost

He further said that the sum of N40,827,033,352 was for Capital Expenditure for the year 2023.