The Senate has adjourned till Tuesday, March 31st, 2015 without passing the 2015 Appropriation Bill.
The upper legislative chamber however, approved the increase of Diaspora Bond from US$100 million to US$300 million.
The Senate had last week approved the report of the National Assembly Conference Committee on the 2015-2017 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) which recommended US$53 per barrel of crude oil benchmark and exchange rate of N190 to US$1.
Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Ahmed Maccido, had recently assured that the National Assembly would pass the budget in two weeks’ time.
However, this was not to be at Tuesday’s plenary, as Majority Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba moved the motion for adjournment, saying, “this is to enable members of the Senate who are contesting election to run their campaigns and participate in the election”. He was seconded by Ahmed Lawan (Yobe North).
Findings by BusinessDay revealed that this year’s budget would be passed in April, as all the committees on budget have stayed action on budget defense to enable lawmakers participate fully in the polls.
The Senate also approved the report of the Joint Committee on Local and Foreign Debts and Finance on the increase in the amount, from US$100 million to US$300 million to be raised through Diaspora Bond from the international capital market.
Presenting the report of the Committee, its Chairman, Ehigie Uzamere (Edo South) explained that this followed the request of President Goodluck Jonathan in February 2014.
