NASS sets Dec deadline for 2020 Budget

A JOINT session of National Assembly (NASS) Committees has promised to pass 2020 Appropriation Bill of N10.33 trillion in December.

  The committees gave the promise yesterday after a public hearing at NASS Complex, Three Arms Zone, Abuja.

  According to Chairman of NASS and Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, the lawmakers would give seamless proceedings on the draft Budget to ensure its passage, adding that the public hearing was special because it was another important step in a bid to resolve the undesirable budget cycle.

  “We have set between the two chambers; and we have resolved that this time around, we must pass this budget before the end of December. We are hopeful that the budget will be passed before we go on Christmas break by God’s grace.

And of course, I am glad to say that President Buhari had shown commitment to what the National Assembly desires. This was seen when the government issued a statement asking ministers and heads of agencies not to travel without defending their budget; that is a total commitment to what we desire in the National Assembly. This cycle has created problems for planning and for the proper implementation of the nation’s macro-economic framework.

  The macroeconomic framework needs to be reasonably predictable the way it happens in other climes. It is when the framework is predictable that it can positively influence the micro details in the budget proposal. This cycle has created problems for planning and for the proper implementation of the nation’s macro-economic framework.

The macroeconomic framework needs to be reasonably predictable the way it happens in other climes. It is when the framework is predictable that it can positively influence the micro details in the budget proposal,” Lawan said.

  Also in his remark, Speaker House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila called on stakeholders to critically examine the document before the legislature exercised its full authority as provided for by the Constitution.

  According to Gbajabiamila, national budgets represent blueprint of the direction its economy was going to take, adding that it was the basis upon which everything else was built for which outcome of the hearing should reflect true federal character of Nigeria.

  “No lopsidedness; everybody has a part of what is the national cake. We are all stakeholders,” he said.

  It will be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari had on October 8, presented the budget proposal to a joint session of NASS, calling on them to change the present budget cycle to January-December.