The Senate and the House of Representatives, on Thursday, approved a total of N4,987,220,425,601 in the 2013 budget amendment requested by President Goodluck Jonathan, putting to rest eight months of wrangling between the executive and legislature over the 2013 budget.
The amount captured in the amendment is almost the same with the earlier figure approved by the lawmakers in the original budget.
The total budget passed by the Senate was N4.987 trillion. The breakdown is given as: N388 billion for statutory transfers, N591 billion for debt service, N2.415 trillion for recurrent (non-debt) expenditure, while the balance of N1.591 trillion will go into the development fund for capital expenditure for the year ending on the 31 December, 2013.
This may mark the end the war of words between the federal executive and the legislature. The Presidency has even repeated its pledge to submit the 2014 Appropriation Bill early enough to enable the National Assembly pass it before the end of the current fiscal year.
For more:
[READ: The budget wars season II: Reps may turn proposed amendments to 2013 budget]
[READ: #BudgetWars: “What Mr. President presented to us was a mere letter”]
[Photo H/T: YNaija]