N’Assembly approves N4trn for petrol subsidy, extra N182.45bn for Police

Nigeria’s national assembly on Thursday approved the sum of N4trillion for subsidy payment in the 2022 budget. The initial budget for subsidy payment was N3.557tn. President Muhammadu Buhari, in his letter to the joint sitting of the parliament, said the increase in the oil benchmark initially put at $62 per barrel and, now $73 per barrel, was part of the reasons for the budget adjustment.

The President also said Nigeria would reduce its projected oil production volume from 1.883 million barrels per day to 1.600 million barrels per day.

Also, the adjusted budget also provided additional N182.45bn to the police; N76.13bn for domestic debt service; and, N66.07bn, as net reductions in statutory transfers.

The statutory transfers’ adjustments were as follows: NDDC by N13.46bn, from N102.78bn to N89.32bn; NEDC by N6.30bn, from N48.08bn to N41.78bn; UBEC by N23.16bn, from N112.29bn to N89.13bn; Basic Health Care Fund by N11.58bn, from N56.14bn to N44.56bn; and NASENI by N11.58bn, from N56.14bn to N44.56bn.

Buhari said “the Federation Account (Main Pool) revenue for the three tiers of government is projected to decline by N2.418trillion, while FGN‘s share from the Account (net of transfer to the Federal Capital Territory and other statutory deductions) is projected to reduce by N1.173 trillion.

“However, the amount available to fund the FGN Budget is projected to decline by N772.91 billion due to the increase in the projection for independent revenue (Operating Surplus Remittance) by N400 billion.

“Aggregate expenditure is projected to increase by N192.52 billion, due to increase in personnel cost by N161.40 billion and other service wide votes by N21.05 billion (both for the Nigeria Police Force), additional domestic debt service provision of N76.13 billion, and net reductions in Statutory Transfers by N66.07 billion.”