On Tuesday, the Senate extended the deadline for implementing the 2023 supplementary budget from March 31 to June 30, 2024.
The Senate had previously extended the implementation of the N1.3 trillion supplementary budget from December 31, 2023, to March 31, 2024.
To further extend the implementation period for the budget, the Senate passed an executive bill sponsored by Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, for quick consideration by passing it for second and third readings.
Also on Tuesday, the Senate approved the sum of N446,342,656,992.00 as the 2024 budget of the Federal Inland Revenue Service.
This was based on the recommendation by its Committee on Finance, which considered the budget.
Senator Sani Musa (APC, Niger East), the committee Chairman, presented the report.
According to the report, N177,441,479,682.00 is for Personnel cost, N156,454,385,053.00 is for Overhead cost and N112,446,822,255.00 is for capital expenditure.
The committee noted that the 2024 budget estimates are based on Zero Based Budgeting.
The 2024 projected Cost of Collection of N446.34bn is 39% higher than the 2023 approved budgeted cost of collection which was N320.90bn.
The personnel cost is based on staff strength on the payroll including social benefits (such as NHIA, Pension contribution, etc.) and anticipated performance bonus for the year.
The increase in overhead projection is due to the need for more robust operational activities critical in driving the achievement of Service core objectives e.g. Tax automation projects and other critical ones that relate directly to tax collection and administration.
The capital cost estimates include ongoing and new projects for the 2024 financial year, as well as expected completion of projects, payment of retention on completed projects and some new projects for effective revenue drive.
The Senate also confirmed four persons as Managing and Executive Directors of the Asset Management Company of Nigeria.
Gbenga Alade was confirmed as the Managing Director of AMCON while those confirmed as Executive Directors include Adeshola Lamidi, Lucky Adaghe and Dr. Aminu Dan’amu.
The confirmation of the nominees was in response to a request by President Bola Tinubu through a letter forwarded to the Senate last month.
The Senate also passed for a second reading, the bill seeking the amendment of the Extradition Act.
In his lead debate on the general principles of the bill, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele said, “The Extradition Act is the legislation that governs the process by which Nigeria can request and obtain the surrender of a person from another jurisdiction who is accused or convicted of a criminal offence outside the requesting jurisdiction’s territory.
The Act is today set for amendment to ensure compliance with Nigeria’s obligation to the international bodies in the fight against Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing and also to ensure the delisting of Nigeria by the ICRG from the grey list through compliance.
“The amendment Bill has been read on the floor of both Houses (the Senate and the House of Representatives) respectively.”
The Senate Leader stated that the Act's Section 2 subsection 1 is changed to allow Nigeria to agree to extradition requests from countries with which Nigeria has signed an extradition treaty – as opposed to only commonwealth countries, as is the case today. The current position of the Act applies only to countries within the Commonwealth and any other country with whom Nigeria establishes an extradition treaty or arrangement.
“Section 7 subsection 4 of the Act is amended to properly define the procedure for issuing arrest warrants for effective execution of extradition requests.”
