President Bola Tinubu has asked the national assembly to increase the 2024 appropriation act by N6.2 trillion.
Tinubu’s request was contained in a letter read by Senate President Godswill Akpabio on the floor of the upper legislative chamber on Wednesday.
This means that the 2024 budget will be increased to N34.9 trillion from an initial N28. 7 trillion budget Tinubu signed into law on January 1.
Accordingly, President Tinubu is seeking an amendment to the budget to provide for N3.2 trillion for infrastructure projects and N3 trillion for recurrent expenditure.
“Under section 58 (2) of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended, I forward herewith the above-named bills for consideration and passage by the senate.
“The appropriation act amendment bill seeks to amend the principal act to provide the sum of N3,200,000,000,000 for Renewed Hope Infrastructure Projects and other critical infrastructure projects to be undertaken across the country and the sum of N3,000,000,000,000 to meet further recurrent expenditure requirements necessary for the proper operation of the federal government.
“They shall be funded by accruing to the federal government of Nigeria.”
Also, Tinubu asked the national assembly to amend the Finance Act of 2023 to tax windfalls gotten by banks owing to “foreign exchange gains”.
“Furthermore, the proposed amendments to the Finance Acts 2023 are required to a one-time windfall tax on the foreign exchange gains realized by banks in their 2023 financial statements to fund capital infrastructure development, education, and healthcare as well as welfare initiatives all of which are components of the Renewed Hope Agenda,” he said.
Recall that on September 12, 2023, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) directed banks to stop utilizing gains from the revaluation of the naira to pay dividends or finance operations.
The development comes as the apex bank in June last year and January 2024, devalued the Naira to tackle the foreign exchange crisis.
According to CBN, the financial review of the foreign exchange, FX, regime change showed that banks are in a position to profit from the policy because of its potential to significantly increase the naira value of banks’ foreign currency (FCY) assets and liabilities.
Meanwhile, BudgIT had earlier raised an alarm that Tinubu’s government plans to run four Concurrent budgets.
BudgIT had said the situation would result in severe Budget credibility issues.