Cuts in 2018 budget to correct geopolitical imbalance – NASS

Fri, Jun 22, 2018 | By publisher


Politics

THE National Assembly has explained that projects and votes in the 2018 budget were rejiged by the legislature to correct the alleged imbalance in the Appropriation Bill presented by President Muhammadu Buhari.

According to the legislature, projects as proposed in the bill were lopsided.

Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Aliyu Sabi-Abdullahi, in company with his counterpart in the House of Representatives, Mr. Razak Nandas, said this at a joint press conference in Abuja on Friday.

Reading from a document in which the National Assembly responded to each of the issues raised by the President, Sabi-Abdullahi stated that the reduction of the proposed allocations to the projects and re-allocation to others in the budget was “made in order to address geopolitical imbalances in the budget as proposed by the executive.”

He noted that the budget had to be increased “in order to give every geopolitical zone a sense of fairness.”

The Senate’s spokesman also stated that, “Everything the National Assembly has done is within its powers.”

The conference is still ongoing. – Punch

– Jun. 22, 2018 @ 15:29 GMT |

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