Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
President Muhammadu Buhari will on Tuesday, November 7, 2017 (today) present the 2018 Appropriation Bill to a joint session of the National Assembly.
The 2018 budget presentation, according to a letter sent to the House of Representatives last week by the President, would be done by 2pm today.
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Yakubu Dogara, had read the letter at the green chamber last week, informing his colleagues of Mr Buhari’s intention to meet with them today for the function.
The 2017 Appropriation Bill was presented to the parliament by the President in December 2016, but was eventually passed in May 2017 before it was signed into law in June this year.
President Buhari hopes that with the 2018 budget presented to the National Assembly earlier this year, it should be passed next month and possibly signed into law late December this year or early January next year.
The aim of this is to return the country’s fiscal year to January to December.
However, there have been hints that the 2018 budget might not be passed by the lawmakers on time because 60 percent of the 2017 budget has not been implemented yet by the executive.
The Federal Government is proposing to spend N8.6 trillion next year in contrast to the N7.3 trillion it proposed last year for this year, though the parliament later raised it to N7.44 trillion.
