By Beauty John, LAFIA
Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State has presented a revised 2020 budget of N62.96 billion to the state House of Assembly for consideration and approval.
Speaker of Nasarawa State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon Ibrahim Balarabe Abdullahi, announced this after Hon Tanko Tunga (APC-Awe North), the Majority Leader of the House read the governor’s letter during the House Proceedings at the chamber in Lafia, on Monday.
The revised budget proposed the governor is N62.96 billion as against the original N108.4 billion passed on December 23, 2019.
“A bill for a law to amend the Nasarawa State 2020 appropriation bill of N62,968,348, 139.00 only, for the services of Nasarawa State has scaled first and second reading at the House,” he stated.
According to Balarabe, the revised budget was necessary as Coronavirus pandemic has affected the socio-economic activities of the state.
The speaker explained that the swift passage of the bill through its first and second reading is the house own contribution to assist the government in its effort to avoid the state sinking into poverty due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
According to the letter read before the house, ”the recurrent expenditure is N31,943,912,285.00 billion while the Capital expenditure is N26,465,632,374.00 billion and the consolidated revenue fund charges is N4,558,803,479.00 billion”.
Balarabe committed the revised budget to the House Committee on Finance and Appropriation for its necessary action and to report back to the House on Wednesday, July 22.
Recall that the governor had on December 4th, 2019, presented a 2020 budget proposal of N100.52 billion to the state Assembly for consideration and approval.
However, the Assembly passed the appropriation bill into law on Dec. 23, 2019 after raising it from N100.5 billion to N108.4 billion.
