Senate has extended the implementation of the 2023 budget and the supplementary Appropriation till March 31, 2024.
The National Assembly passed the sum of N21.8trillion and a supplementary Appropriation of N2.1trillion for 2023 Fiscal year.
The Red Chamber passed the resolution on Thursday following the adoption of the bill seeking to amend the 2023 Appropriation Act and the 2023 Supplementary Budget.
Presenting the bill, the Senate Leader, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele (APC Ekiti Central), explained that the recent 2023 capital releases to the ministries, departments and agencies, MDAs were unlikely to be utilized before December 31, 2023 due to late release mandates of the funds which would lapse if the capital implementation date was not extended beyond December 31.
He stressed that, in view of the critical importance of some key projects nearing completion, it was expedient to grant extension of the expiration clause to avoid compounding the problem of abandoned projects.
The Senate Leader noted that, given that some of the projects were not provided for in the 2024 budget under legislative considerations, the need to extend the implementation year from December 31, 2023 to March 31, 2024 of both Acts had become expedient.
He reiterated that the bill, if passed, would allow full utilization of the capital releases in order to help reflate the economy.
Accordingly, after a clause-by-clause consideration of the bill at the Committee of the Whole, it was passed by the Senate.
