NASS shifts 2018 Budget approval to May

The National Assembly has postponed the approval of this year’s budget till May 2018.

This is contrary to expectations that the 2018 budget estimates of N8.612 trillion would be passed by April.

Chairman, House Committee on Appropriations, Mustapha Dawaki, made this known at the 2018 National Budget Hearing in Abuja on Tuesday.

The hearing was jointly organised by the Senate and House Committees on Appropriation.
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Dawaki, explained that if the budget was not passed by April 24 as assured by the Speaker, House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, then the N2.06 trillion 2017 capital budget would run till May 31.

President Muhammadu Buhari had in his presentation of the 2018 appropriation bill to a joint session of the National Assembly on Nov. 7, 2017, called for speedy passage of the budget to allow for implementation of the January to December budget cycle.

Both legislative chambers had blamed the delay in the approval of the bill to refusal of heads of ministries, departments and agencies to come forward and defend their respective budget proposals.