2024 APPROPRIATION BILL TO BE PASSED BEFORE DEC. ENDING— BINCHI

The Chairman House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations, Hon. Abubakar Binchi has said that the House of Representatives will work to ensure the passage of the 2024 Appropriation Bill before the end of December, 2023.

Bichi who spoke to journalists after President Bola Tinubu laid the 2024 budget estimate of N27.5 trillion tagged “Budget of the Renewed Hope” before the joint session of the National Assembly also commended the President for presenting a “realistic” budget.

Bichi, a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) was reacting to question on the possibility of properly scrutinizing the budget proposals before the end of December stated “Yes it is possible,  as you heard Mr. speaker saying we are going to do our work from tomorrow to Friday, you know we don’t work on that day but this time around we’re going to work on Fridays and Saturdays. By Monday we’re going to start our budget defence.

“We are going to invite all the MDAs to come and defend what they have done in 2023 and to explain in details their proposal in the 2024 budget.

Of course, we’re going to work day and night to make sure the budget is passed before end of December.”

The lawmaker further commended President Tinubu noting that the 2024 budget was the first time in the last few years that capital expenditure exceeds recurrent expenditure.

“You can see this time around the Capital has been increased, this is the first time in three to four years that the budget capital has gone up. The capital is increased and the deficit has also gone down. “I think it’s very realistic and Mr president means well for the country from the way we’ve seen it. But of course, we’re going to work on the documents and do our analysis before we can make a final conclusion,” he said.