The Senate on Wednesday passed N4.695 trillion as the 2014 national budget. The budget is N52.2bn more than the N4.642 trillion submitted by President Goodluck Jonathan to the National Assembly on December 19, 2013, through the Co-ordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
Main points of the 2014 budget approved by the upper chambers at its plenary presided over by the Senate President David Mark are, Statutory Transfers (N408, 687, 801, 891), Debts Service (N712, 000, 000, 000), Recurrent Expenditure (N2,454, 887, 566, 702), Capital Expenditure (N1, 110, 614, 631, 407) while the Aggregate Expenditure is (4,695, 190, 000, 000.).
The Senate President commended his colleagues for the consideration of the budget of the Ministries, departments and agencies of government at their various committee levels. He also appealed to the executive arm of government to ensure efficient and effective implementation of the budget.
The Senate had earlier debated the general principles of the budget and read it the second time on January 23, 2014 and consequently referred it to the Committee on Appropriation and Finance for further legislative action.
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