Assistant Politics Editor, DANIEL KANU, analyses opinions of experts on the 2014 budget recently passed by both chambers of the National Assembly, raising fears of the belated action impacting negatively on the economy and other capital development projects in the land
After months of deliberations, the House of Representatives, penultimate Thursday, passed a budget of N4.695 trillion for the 2014 fiscal year.
The Senate had earlier on Wednesday passed the budget with the same figure, which is N53 billion higher than the N4.642 estimate submitted by the executive.
The budget passage came after lawmakers endorsed the report of John Owan-Enoh-led Committee on Appropriation and Finance at the House proceeding presided by Speaker, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal.
Since both the Red and Green chambers passed the same figure, some political analysts argue that there may not be need to raise a harmonisation committee by the two chambers on the issue.
Some, however, argued on the contrary, stressing that with the House’s passage of the 2014 Appropriation Bill, it is mandatory that both chambers of the National Assembly set up a harmonisation committee to resolve whatever differences they might have, especially in sectoral allocations in the budget, before the document is transmitted to President Goodluck Jonathan for assent.
Barring any other interjection, President Jonathan will sign the budget without further delay.
A schedule of the budget passed into law indicates that of the N4.695 trillion passed, N408.68 billion is allocated to statutory transfer, while N712 billion is meant for the servicing of foreign and domestic debts.
Under recurrent expenditure, Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) got N1.95 trillion, Federal Executive Bodies (FEBs) got N13.76 billion, service-wide votes and pensions got N301.838 billion, and the Presidential Amnesty Programme got N63.281 billion.
From the N1.119 trillion earmarked as capital expenditure, provisions were made for 42 MDAs, seven FEBs and capital supplementation.
The Subsidy Re-investment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) got N268.370 billion.
The passage of the budget by the House was, however, not a smooth exercise, as Kingsley Chinda, who represents Obio/Akpor Federal Constituency of Rivers State under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), raised a point of order, which, if it had been adopted, would have stalled the approval of the fiscal bill on the day.
Chinda had invoked Order 97, Rule 8 of the House, which states that consideration of the clauses of an Appropriation Bill shall be postponed until a compendium giving details of the budget accompanies it.
His reason for raising the objection stemmed from the charge that the budget did not make provisions for capital projects in his state.
Chinda had also cited Sub-rule 5 of the same Order, which states that when a bill is read for the second time, it shall be committed to a committee of the House and subsequently deliberated upon by the Appropriation Committee, which will then pass it on to the House for consideration.
However, his suggestion that the motion for the passage of the budget be stood down and the Easter break suspended to enable the House do a thorough job was opposed by his colleagues.
The Speaker, however, ruled Chinda out of order, paving the way for the House to proceed with its consideration of the budget.
House spokesperson, Zakari Mohammed, stressed that Chinda’s position was uncalled for, since all the committees of the House had screened the entire gamut of the budget during the budget defence session with MDAs.
Some financial experts have been critical on the budget, expressing concern that its late passage would impact negatively on the ongoing development of capital projects across the nation.
They also pointed out that another major impediment of the budget would be poor implementation.
Prof. Sheriffadeen Tella of the Department of Economics, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, for instance, observed that the budget was already too late.
The don said the late passage would definitely affect implementation, especially in the area of capital projects.
He said: “Budget delays, contrary to other opinions, have a multiplier effect on sectoral expansion and employment generation. Any delay on the budget affects implementation.”
Managing Director, H.J. Trust & Investment Ltd., Harrison Owoh, noted that the budget would promote corruption.
This, according to him, is because “many ministries will engage in fraudulent spending to avoid return of unspent funds to government coffers by December 2014”.
All the same, national secretary, Independent Shareholders Association of Nigeria (ISAN), Bayo Adeleke, gave kudos to the National Assembly for passing the budget despite the high level of politicking that trailed the exercise.
Adeleke said politicking delayed the budget passage which was contrary to the National Assembly’s earlier pledge that it would be passed before the end of 2013.
“The implementation of the budget and its eventual impact on the living standard of Nigerians are the real issues,” Adeleke was quoted to have said.
Former governor of Kwara State, Dr. Bukola Saraki, had drawn the attention of the Senate to a lacuna in the budget, which he considered critical to its effective implementation.
Saraki, in a statement, observed: “The Appropriation Act that was passed did not consider a valuable indicator of our revenue base – oil production variation. In other words, our national budget is predicated on oil production and price. So much emphasis has, however, been placed on the benchmarked price, but little consideration on the production side. In recent times, we have witnessed massive fluctuations in the production level, with production going down sharply and other times going up.”
Economy expert, Henry Boyo, said there was nothing to cheer about concerning the budget. This, according to him, is because there is nothing differently done to produce a new result.
He told TheNiche that the country has always had it wrong in areas of deficit, surplus and benchmark calculations.
“There is nothing to cheer about in the 2014 budget. Despite that it was late in coming, there is nothing that was done differently. If we had done anything differently, we can then expect better result. The chances are very slim that we will get a better or different result. What we have won’t change the economy, our borrowing or the realities on ground,” Boyo remarked.