Sani Musa, senator for Niger East and chairman of the Senate Committee on General Services, has stated that the National Assembly may amend the Finance Act again to address the ₦11.03 trillion deficit proposed for the 2023 national budget.
Musa alluded to the possible amendment while speaking with BizWatch Nigeria and other journalists on Sunday.
According to Musa, the amendment to the Finance Act would focus on requiring the various revenue-generating agencies to double or triple their previous targets.
He claimed that doing so would significantly reduce the proposed budget deficit.
“The budget of this country has been in deficit and the only thing we can do is to amend so many things in the finance act, so that we can generate more revenues from other sources rather than depending on oil alone and by extension, reduce the size of the proposed budget deficit,” he said.
During an interaction with Zainab Ahmed, minister of finance, budget, and national planning, the Senate Finance Committee voted against the proposed ₦11.03 trillion deficit in the proposed ₦19.76 trillion 2023 budget.
Meanwhile, in terms of legislative activities, Musa expressed reservations about the possibility of resuming plenary on Tuesday.
“By now, the temporary chambers should have been ready knowing that we are resuming,” he said.
“Initially we are supposed to resume on the 20th of this month but there are some little things that need to be done before then.
“But I can assure the general public that this will be done in the shortest time and we are going to resume to receive Mr. president and to present the 2023 budget.
You will recall that the 9th senate has done very well, because this edifice, since it was built, has never been rehabilitated.
“We are refurbishing it, bringing it back to standard like any other parliament you see around the world.
“The FCT that is doing this job has been up and doing, but we need to push. They need to do more so that we will be able to resume as quick as possible.”
