The Senate has began debate on the general principles of the 2020 Appropriation Bill of N10.33 trillion.

The lawmakers took turns debating the Bill at plenary on Wednesday.

Out of the N10.33 trillion in the 2020 Budget, N556.7 billion is for Statutory Transfer, while N2. 7 trillion is for Debt Service.

Contributing, Sen. Gabriel Suswam (PDP-Benue) said that the budget was very ambitious as it was intended to address infrastructural deficit.

He said that the economy had contracted to a level that the senate needed to critically address some very “germane and pregnant issues.”



“Along with the appropriation submitted by the President, is a financial bill that has five thematic areas.

“I am worried about the area that talks about revenue. I am worried with that because Value Added Tax (VAT) that had been moved from 5 per cent to 7.5 per cent is one of the sources that we intend to raise revenue to finance critical areas of education and the health.

“In the same budget that we proposed 2.93 Gross Domestic Product Growth, we have also taken these policies, policies that will further contract the economy.

“This is because if we say that VAT will be moved from 5 per cent to 7.5 percent, the exemptions from the VAT are small because most of the aggregate economic activities are small business enterprises.”

He explained that most of the small business enterprises would be unable to address the issue of 7.5 per cent VAT.

“The 7.5 per cent VAT is on the high side and has exemption only on food items.”

On sectoral allocations, Suswam said that the money for the education and health was insufficient.

He said that to address infrastructure from holistic point of view, “outside of roads and power; education and health allocation should have also been enhanced.”

Chairman Senate Committee on Appropriation Sen. Jibril Barau (APC-Kano) said that the sectoral allocation of N262 billion to Works and Housing, showed that government was serious about providing the necessary infrastructure to drive and sustain the economy.

He said that government was serious to actualise its long term objective of diversifying the economy.

Sen. Ike Ekweremadu (PDP-Enugu) said that he was pleased with the emphasis on road sector development and the marginal increase in Human Rights Commission’s allocation.

“These are indeed very commendable steps.

“The President has done his best in the presentation of the Appropriation Bill pursuant to Section 81 of the Constitution.

“Now the job is left for us to consider and make appropriate adjustments.

“We cannot blame the President or anybody else to fail in this responsibility of adjusting the proposal where necessary.

“Once the budget is passed, the rest is implementation.”

He said that in order to ensure full implementation of the budget, revenue generation must be emphasised and certainly not at the expense of ordinary Nigerians.

Ekweremadu said that there was the need to block all leakages.

“I am happy that the Federal Government is now clear on its position on IPPIS that government agencies must be captured under IPPIS.”

He further said that there was the need to show more interest in mineral sector development.

“We need to remove so much emphasis on oil and gas and see what we can do to take advantage of all the deposits of solid minerals in the country.”

Senate Minority Leader Eyinnaya Abaribe said the budget was a budget of taxation going by the proposed increase in VAT from 5 to 7. 5 per cent.

In his remarks, President of the Senate Ahmad Lawan, mentioned that the debate on the budget would continue on Thursday.(NAN)


https://www.sunnewsonline.com/senate-begins-debate-on-2020-appropriation-bill/

good

Noted but what Ekweremmadu said ain't adding up at all.... Maybe he is referring to the roads in the North cos I don't see any work that is been done on the roads in Southern part of Nigeria.

Don't he ply on onitsha-Enugu Express way/road ?
Don't he ply on Enugu-PH expressway?

There are other Federal Highways in the southern part of Nigeria that causes alot of damage to the people that make use of it.

Who is actually fooling who in this country?

Why did Ipob not complete the job on that man called ikweremad ?

Nigeria is in comatose. The more you look, the less you see. Abracadabra

Noted

Ekweremadu the political leech and parasite. Sucking up to Buhari for a possible shot at Governorship in the APC, knowing that gburugburu won't let him have his way in the PDP.

Yam eater!

Everything audio.

Story for the gods... They are acting scripts again..
Nigerians wants implementations not all des movies joor.

nuti:
Why did Ipob not complete the job on that man called ikweremad ?

Why should they? Wetin do uma? Una no get hands and legs?

All this statement self.. We need it to affect the lives of people on the street not just mare talking and going behind us to embezzle the money later

DIKEnaWAR:
Ekweremadu the political leech and parasite. Sucking up to Buhari for a possible shot at Governorship in the APC, knowing that gburugburu won't let him have his way in the PDP.

Yam eater!

.....and why shouldnt he. Who is he fighting for? People who love pain and oppression. He should be "wise". 48 laws of power. Never outshine your master . Better a live dog than a dead lion, he who lives will fight tomorrow but for now let him eat. Who knows they may assasinate him

/
How quickly "change" and "nextLevel" disappeared from everyone's lexicon.



The tragi-comedy called Nigeria is the greatest form of entertainment, that is, as long as you are not stuck in the concentration camp.
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anthonanik:
All this statement self.. We need it to affect the lives of people on the street not just mare talking and going behind us to embezzle the money later

People on the street like what is happening. Pain amd suffering is their opium. This VAT hing is good. Let them increase it to 10% sef. Buhari is the man

In the budget, Niger delta ministry got the least amount. Why does Nigerians actually think that it is OK to provoke the Niger delta people.

The east west road under the Niger delta ministry alone will consume the whole of the Niger delta ministry budget. Not a single km has been done on that road since 2015, and that is a road that was over 90% completed in 2015. Hope the legislature will increase the budget for the ministry.

Atlanticfire:
In the budget, Niger delta ministry got the least amount. Why does Nigerians actually think that it is OK to provoke the Niger delta people.

The east west road under the Niger delta ministry alone will consume the whole of the Niger delta ministry budget. Not a single km has been done on that road since 2015, and that is a road that was over 90% completed in 2015. Hope the legislature will increase the budget for the ministry.

/
The entrance to PH from Aba after the bridge has not been completed in more than 10years. That's a distance of about 5km or less. I think the area is called Obigbo. They work on that stretch of road everyday and yet cannot complete it. It is one of the worst roads in the whole world.

Yes. You heard it. 5km or less in more than 10 years.
/

It's good that Government wants to focus on completing the ongoing and abandoned projects but in doing this, they should not over burden the hopeless and downtrodden masses. A VAT increment of 50%, is on the high side. The companies being tax will squarely transfer the additional 2.5% vat to the final consumers through increase in prices of products and services. The government should rather direct their attention on diversifying government sources of revenue by exploring solid minerals, curbing wastages in governance, secure the borders against contrabands and tax evaders, cutting over heads by merging agencies of government offering related services, merge the bicameral system into a unicameral National Assembly, usage of PPP initiative to execute some of the major projects, privatize inefficient parastatals and sincerely drive the anti corruption crusade.

InvertedHammer:

/
The entrance to PH from Aba after the bridge has not been completed in more than 10years. That's a distance of about 5km or less. I think the area is called Obigbo. They work on that stretch of road everyday and yet cannot complete it. It is one of the worst roads in the whole world.

Yes. You heard it. 5km or less in more than 10 years.
/

The East West road to Port Harcourt has become a creek. In all there is no road to Port Harcourt.

Who are this fools talking to?maybe they can tell the illiterate ones among them that the joke called budget which 48b,54b,was appropriated for education and health respectively was meant to address critical areas of the economy,which country can develope without pariotisiny education and health?where did the budget address the issue of unemployment?budget that more than 75%is made up concurrent expenditure, paying salaries and wages, more than 20% is debt servicing, 25%for national assembly salaries and wages, were did the budget address capital projects that will boost employment?self acclaimed Mr integrity was expected to tell us how the government intends to reduce costs of governance but he did not do that, he was busy deceiving himself for having cold because of hard work, for ike ekweremadu everyone can see that those who tortured him in Germany did not make any mistakes .

It's well

nuti:
Why did Ipob not complete the job on that man called ikweremad ?

oga go back am read, try reading pls so that you can liberate your generation from iberibeism, dont judge a book by the cover i mean the headline can be misleading, Ekweremmadu applauded the budget presentation but intelligently criticise were it was not appropriate .

Northerners will be speaking up but Southerners will be stupid.

They should have broken Ekweremadus head in Germany. So that any time he looks at the wound, it will reset his brain

Ok

DIKEnaWAR:
Ekweremadu the political leech and parasite. Sucking up to Buhari for a possible shot at Governorship in the APC, knowing that gburugburu won't let him have his way in the PDP.

Yam eater!

Ekweremadu is a b$tch. A saboteur of ndi igbo.

Anybody who supports VAT increase at this time is heartless. We are talking of simple minimum wage review for more than two years and this government is dragging feet.

I can remember about two years ago, President Kenyatta in his national address on labour day, increased salaries and wages by 18%. This was done without setting any committee.

Nigeria is blessed with everything you can think of in this world but what we lack since Independence is good and purposeful leadership.

Finally, it irks me anytime I hear people talking and lamenting about budget. It is not what and how early you do your budget but how well committed is the government in implementing what is budgeted matters. Also you cannot keep on increasing the budget each and every year when you claimed you don't have enough capital to implement same. This would lead to excessive borrowings and budget failures.

Budget is meant to drive the economy and there are key institutions that require more budgetary allocation in order to give the economy a boost. They include health (15%), education (26%) etc. These are global standards that are being used by developed nations, their key to economic prosperity.

Let us learn and use our brains instead of doing ' magu..magu' each and every year.

May God lead us through. Long live Nigeria! Long live Nairaland!!!!!!!

Abaribe was just ranting

Imagine abroad yam eater eulogize Bubu Jubril El Sudan God is great