The Senate Wednesday considered and passed a budget of N4,695,190,000,000.00 for the 2014 fiscal year.
The amount represents an increase of N53billion of the N4,642,960,000,000.00 2014 budget estimates presented to the National Assembly by President Goodluck Jonathan through the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on December 19, 2013.
Of the amount, N408,687,801,891.00 was approved for statutory transfers against the N399,687,801,891.00 proposed by the executive.
The sum of N712billion was approved for debt service as proposed.
The Senate also approved the sum of N2,454,887,566,702.00 for recurrent non-debt expenditure while the sum of N1,119,614,631,407.00 was approved for capital expenditure for the 2014 fiscal year.
The executive had proposed a recurrent expenditure of N2,430,665,361,597.00 and capital expenditure of N1,100,606,836,514.00.
Major highlights of the approved budget are: Benchmark oil price – $77.5 per barrel; Crude oil production – 2.3883million barrels per day; Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate – 6.75 per cent; Inflation rate – 9.5 per cent and Exchange Rate – N160.00 to $1.00.
