Why NASS Raised Budget Figure

By Wale Adele - 01.03.2008

THE two chambers of the National Assembly have set up two committees to work together and look into the grey areas observed by The Presidency, which informed the withholding of presidential assent to the financial document, just as Saturday Tribune learnt that the non-inclusion of expected revenue from other sources aside the crude oil informed the raising of the budget figure by the lawmakers.

Though the House spokesman, Hon. Eziuche Ubani, while briefing newsmen on Wednesday, did not mention the reason why the figures were initially raised, it was learnt that both Houses had discovered that the federal government, in preparing the budget, did not include such expected revenue from non-oil sectors like the ports authority, Customs as well as taxes and revenues from the Federal Inland Revenue Service in the initial calculation.

National Assembly sources told our corres-pondent that it was when relevant agencies were summoned and they gave their revenue projection figures that the initial figure was raised to N2.9 trillion to accommodate the difference.

The House also raised the benchmark on which the crude oil revenue was based.

One of the areas queried by the president was the allocation of N90 billion for FERMA for the maintenance of federal roads in the current year.

Another area of dispute was the title of Special Intervention Fund to the NDDC. The federal government had proposed N28 billion for the agency.

The government had proposed the expenses under Presidential Infrastructural Intervention in Oil Producing States as against a new heading of Special Presi-dential Intervention to the NDDC adopted by the National Assembly.

For FERMA, the president was said to have queried the competence of those at the agency to handle such a large volume of money.