Minister of Budget and National Planning, Abubakar Bagudu, on Thursday, said there was no disparity in the 2024 budget.
The minister stated this while addressing journalists in Abuja on the heels of widespread reports that the 2024 budget had been padded.
Senator Abdul Ningi, representing Bauchi Central Senatorial District of Bauchi State, had said that the 2024 budget was padded by N3 trillion, and that there were two versions of the budget.
Ningi who was reported to have made the claim in a BBC Hausa Service interview last weekend, was on Tuesday suspended for three months by the Senate.
Contrary to Ningi’s claim, the minister said that President Bola Tinubu submitted a budget of N25.2 trillion on 29th November, 2023 which the National Assembly upgraded to N28.7 trillion when it was passed into law.
Bagudu said, “Constitution necessitates that, the president submit budget proposal to the National Assembly. The national assembly had the last word in terms of appropriation. There can be no appropriation without addition, subtraction or agreement to the one presented.
“The national assembly deemed it fit to increase the budget from N25.5 trillion presented by the president to 28.7trn which is what the president is working with”.
He explained that the Appropriation Act 2024 authorises the issuance from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation the total sum of N28.7trillion of which N1.7 trillion is for Recurrent (Non-Debt) Expenditure while the sum of N9.9
trillion is for contribution to the Development Fund for Capital Expenditure for the year ending 31 December, 2024.
The Minister categorically stated that the federal government does not operate two different budgets as widely reported in the media.
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