The Katsina State House of Assembly on Wednesday passed the N202.4 Appropriation Bill of the state for 2019.
The bill was reviewed upward by the Assembly by N1.7 billion from the N20o.7 billion originally submitted to the legislature.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that Gov. Aminu Masari had presented an appropriation bill on N200.7 billion to the lawmakers for consideration and passage.
The proposal has N52.7 billion, representing 26 per cent, as recurrent expenditure, while N148 billion, representing 74 per cent, is capital expenditure.
The Chairman, Assembly Committee on Appropriation, Alhaji Hambali Faruk, presented the draft estimates after making some adjustments for consideration before the assembly.
He explained that the committee conducted a budget defense by various ministries, departments and agencies as well as a public hearing after which the committee made some adjustments.
Faruk said that after the amendments, the recurrent expenditure became N57.6 billion, representing 28.48 per cent, while the capital expenditure stood at N144.7 billion, representing 71.52 per cent.
‘’After the budget defense exercise, a balanced budget was arrived at with some variations compared with the initial draft budget submitted to the assembly.
‘’This is due to the fact that the proposals were reviewed based on facts presented by the MDA’s to the committee,’’ he said.
The lawmakers unanimously adopted the committee’s report and passed the budget estimates.
The Deputy Speaker, Alhaji Dalhatu Tafoki, who presided over the sitting, asked the Clerk of the Assembly to prepare a clean copy of the bill to the state governor for assent.
