Indication has emerged that the 2016 Budget presented to the
joint session of the National Assembly by President Mohammadu Buhari on
December 22, 2015 has been withdrawn.Sources said the budget was withdrawn by
the President to allow for reduction in allocations for some ministries,
agencies and parastatals, especially the presidency.
The budget is to be represented ‘codedly’ to the National Assembly
by the end of this month.
One of the sources said there were too many errors in the
budget that cannot be overlooked.
“The president did not read the actual budget until
criticism started flying left, right and center.
“For instance, budgetary allocation was made for renovation
of Vice President Lodge in the Presidency Budget while provision was also made
for the renovation in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Ministry’s budgetary
allocation,” the source said.
President Buhari had presented a N6.08 trillion budget for
the fiscal year 2016. In the budget, capital expenditure takes N1.8 trillion,
marking a significant over 300 per cent increment from the 2015 vote of N557
billion.