Lawmakers Pass Amended Budget Bill For Second Reading, Decry N1trn Tax Waivers

The Senate yesterday passed for second reading a bill seeking to amend the 2022 Appropriation Act as the lawmakers decried the high N1 trillion tax waivers to be granted by the federal government.

President Muhammadu Buhari had, in a letter to the National Assembly dated February 10, sought an amendment to the budget to make provision in the sum of N106.1 billion for capital expenditures and N43.870bn for recurrent without increasing budget deficit.

He also requested that additional N2.557 trillion be appropriated to fund the petrol subsidy in the 2022 Budget Framework.

Buhari also requested reinstating four capital projects of N1.4bn in the executive proposal for the Federal Ministry of Water Resources; and N22bn cut from the Sinking Fund to retire mature loans in already Issued Bonds.

Leading debate on the general principles of the bill, Senator Yahaya Abdullahi gave the key highlights of the amendment to include eleven areas such as funding to cushion the impacts of the recent suspension of the petrol subsidy removal, among others.

Senator Gabriel Suswam (PDP, Benue) bemoaned the high tax expenditure in the 2022 budget. He said,

“Tax expenditures are waivers that are given to individuals or companies. Mr President, if you look at the tax expenditure in 2022, it is about N1 trillion and totally unnecessary.

“It is not just what the president has sent here; let us consider those areas that can help them save money, because we might decide to step down those tax expenditures.”

The bill, after scaling second reading, was referred to the Committee on Appropriation for further action and would report back in one week.