The Akwa Ibom House of Assembly on Tuesday passed the 2021 Appropriation Bill of N456.25 billion.
The 2021 budget as passed by the assembly is made up of N164.52 billion recurrent expenditure, N241.45 billion for capital expenditure and N50.29 billion for consolidated revenue fund charges.
The House had earlier dissolved into Committee of Supply through a motion moved by the House Leader, Mr. Udo Kierian(- PDP), member representing Oruk Anam and seconded by Mr. Aniefiok Akpan (- PDP), member representing Etinan, to consider the 2021 appropriation.
The 2021 Budget christened “Budget of Economic Reconstruction” was presented to the Assembly by Gov. Udom Emmanuel on Oct. 20.
Earlier, the Chairman House Committee on Finance and Appropriation, Mr. Uduak Odudoh, said the passage was in pursuant to Section 14 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and the relevant provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2004.
He said the committee adopted participatory approach in its legislative budgetary process with invitation to ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), Non-Governmental Organisations and relevant stakeholders to attend a Public Hearing on the budget on Nov. 3.
He said the budget focused on the Completion Agenda and its augmentation of N20.60 billion from the initial provision of N435.65 billion leading to a reviewed outlay of N456.26 billion.
He also said that the recurrent expenditure was reviewed upward by N6.11 billion from the initial N158.40 billion and capital expenditure by N14.49 billion from the initial N226.96 billion giving an increase of N20.60 billion.
The Speaker of the Assembly, Mr. Aniekan Bassey, in his remarks, commended the MDAs that appeared before the House Committee on Finance and Appropriation during budget defence.
Bassey said that with the passage, the commencement date for the 2021 Appropriation would be Jan. 1, 2021.
He said that the overall objective was to give priority to areas of immediate importance to Akwa Ibom people.
The speaker directed the Clerk of the Assembly, Mrs. Mandu Umoren, to send the clean copy of the bill to Gov. Udom Emmanuel for assent. (NAN)
