The Senate is expected to pass amendment to the 2013 budget today.
This followed the passage of the second reading of the bill by the Upper Chamber yesterday.
Also, Senate President David Mark directed the Committee on Appropriation to return the bill to the Senate within 24 hours for the third reading to take place.
The amendment bill, which was forwarded to the National Assembly by President Goodluck Jonathan last month, seeks to restore the cuts on capital components of the original bill by the National Assembly.
The Senate had said it was not ready to work on the amendment bill until September when it returned from its 2013 annual vacation.
Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, who disclosed the Senate's decision, predicated the action of the Upper Chamber on the argument that the document containing the amendment was too voluminous and required proper and in-depth work on it that would take much time before completion.
He said that given the short period before the Senate would proceed on its annual vacation, it would not be possible for proper legislative work to be completed on the bill.
The bill seeks to authorise the issue from the consolidated revenue fund of the federation, N4,987,220,425,601 only.
A further breakdown of the budget shows a statutory transfer of N388,063,000,000 only, debt servicing of N591,764,000,000 only, recurrent expenditure of N2,418,814,620,783 only and contribution to the development fund for capital expenditure for the year ending 31st December, 2013, N1,588,578,805,197 only.
In his lead presentation, Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, said President Jonathan decided to send another version of the amendment bill to the National Assembly to supersede the earlier one after consultations with the leadership of the National Assembly.
He appealed to his colleagues to expedite the passage of the bill to the second reading.
Some of the reductions effected by the lawmakers, which the President wants to be restored, are the allocation to the Abuja – Lokoja Road, which was reduced by N4 billion, Kano – Maiduguiri Road, which was reduced by N3.5 billion, 'dualisation' of the Ibadan – Ilorin section 2, which was reduced by N5.5 billion, rehabilitation of the Bebba Bridge, which was reduced by N1.25 billion, rehabilitation of the burnt Marine Bridge and Iddo Bridge, which was reduced by N1 billion, special intervention fund for emergency roads and bridges washout across the country, reduced by N6.28 billion and the dualisation of the Obajana Junction to Benin, which was reduced by N4 billion, etc.
Regarding the Ministry of Health, Jonathan noted that the MDG HIV/ AIDS ARV drugs allocation was reduced by N1 billion, routine immunisation vaccines was reduced by N1.75 billion, malaria programme procurement and distribution of insecticides was reduced by N0.88 billion, payment of pledge for onchocesiasis recertification cut by N0.12 billion and the National Trauma Centre, Abuja reduced by N0.1 billion, etc.
Concerning the Ministry of Power, the president said N16.3 billion was cut from power projects, including the 215mw Kaduna Dual Fire power plant, which was reduced by N2.25 billion, 2nd Kaduna – Kano 33KV DC lines reduced by N1.5 billion, Gombe – Yola – Jalingo 33KV SC line reduced by N0.6 billion, Maiduguri 330/132KV sub-station reduced by N0.3 billion, Kaduna – Jos 330KV DC line reduced by N0.5 billion and the Motosho – Epe – Ajah 330KV DC line reduced by N0.8 billion, etc.
In addition, Jonathan listed the Transport Ministry where the lawmakers reduced by N1.4 billion the cost of construction of the Abuja – Kaduna rail, Jebba – Kano rail line rehabilitation had its allocation reduced by N0.5 billion, procurement and rehabilitation of wagon/locomotives was reduced by N1 billion while insurance of locomotives was reduced by N0.2 billion.
The Ministry of Education was not spared by the National Assembly as the lawmakers slashed allocations to the various projects to the tune of N5.64 billion, including the National Library project, which was cut by N2 billion.
On the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme, SUREP, which one of its major targets is to address the problem of unemployment in the country, out of the N27 billion budgeted for the community service, women and youth employment programme, the National Assembly slashed it to N7 billion only.
In his contributions to the debate during the second reading, Deputy Senate Leader, Abdul Ningi, appealed to the senators to support the amendment.
He said: "Amending this does not in any way reduce the powers of the National Assembly." While also supporting the amendment bill, Senator Ayogu Eze said the National Assembly was like a branch of the whole of the country, which should flow with the executive arm of the government to ensure the smooth running of the country.
The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, said as the branch of government whichad the responsibility of making laws, the National Assembly should not shy away from amending the budget bill.
However, Senator Eta Inang, observed that as the Senate Committee on Appropriation was looking into the nitty-gritty of the bill, it should realise that it had removed the powers of the National Assembly to superintendent over the budget and asked the committee to restore those powers.
Also yesterday, the Senate confirmed the chairman and members of the National Assembly Service Commission. The new Chairman of the commission is the former Head of Service of the Federation, Dr. Adamu Fika. He hails from Yobe State and represents the North-East geopolitical zone in the commission.
The other 12 members of the commission, two from each of the six geo-political zones of the country, were confirmed in line with the relevant section of the 1999 Constitution.
National Mirror