The Ogun State House of Assembly has passed N400bn as the 2019 Appropriation Bill into law as against the N402.63bn presented by the executive arm of government.
The passage of the proposed budget was based on the presentation of a report by the chairman of the House Committee on Finance and Appropriation, Hon. Victor Fasanya to the House, during its plenary on Thursday.
Fasanya moved the motion for the adoption of the bill which was seconded by the Chief Whip, Hon. Idowu Olowofuja and supported by the whole house through a voice vote.
The bill was thereafter read clause-by-clause by Speaker Suraju Adekunbi before the members, after which the motion for the third reading was moved by the Minority Leader, Olawale Alausa and seconded by Hon Akinpelu Aina, subsequently, the Clerk of the House, Engr. Lanre Bisiriyu did the third reading of the bill.
The budget proposal was passed with slight adjustments in the budget of some agencies which led to an increment of N1.088bn in the fund initially allocated for recurrent expenditure which moved from N125.07bn to N126.165bn, while capital expenditure was reduced by N3.720bn, moving from initial N254.055bn to N250.334bn; just as the expected revenue was slashed from N402.63bn to N400bn, resulting in N2.63bn reduction.
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A further breakdown of the total budget indicated that expected internally generated revenue moved from initial over N161.244bn to N159.244bn, giving a difference of N2bn, while statutory allocation, Value Added Tax (VAT), expected a refund from Federal Government remained as presented by Governor Amosun.
In addition, capital receipt of N101.388bn was slashed to N100.755bn giving a difference of over N632m.
Commending his colleague lawmakers and the entire members of staff for their support and steadfastness at ensuring the speedy passage of the bill, Speaker Adekunbi directed that the clean copy of the bill be sent to the Governor for his assent.
It would be recalled that the State House of Assembly led by Speaker Adekunbi had since 2011 been passing the fiscal year budget presented by Governor Amosun before the end of each outgoing year as part of its resolve to ensure the timely implementation of the budget for the spread of more democratic dividends to the people of the State.
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