The senate committee on appropriations has disclosed that the upper legislative chamber will pass the 2022 appropriation bill on Tuesday.
This was stated on Monday by the chairman of appropriation committee, Barau Jibrin while speaking with reporters after meeting with Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Barau said the bill has not been laid because his committee has been waiting for the electoral commission to provide details of what it needs for the forthcoming general elections.
The chairman said the bill will be laid and considered on Tuesday.
“The presentation and consideration will be tomorrow,” he said.
“We have been waiting for them [INEC] and they have given the detailed information of what they need.
“We are proceeding to put together our report for onward submission to the plenary tomorrow [Tuesday]. We are presenting it tomorrow and it is going to be considered tomorrow as well by the grace of God.”
Earlier and during the meeting with members of the appropriation committee, Yakubu said the commission will need over N300 billion for the general elections of 2023 and some bye-elections in 2022.
In October, President Muhammadu Buhari presented an expenditure of the federal government in the 2022 fiscal year to N16.45 trillion.
But the senate committee on finance pegged the federal government’s total expenditure at N16.39 trillion, reducing what thep president sent by N60 billion.
While Buhari had pegged the fiscal deficit at N692.0 billion, the senate put it at N635.4 billion.