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No provision for N5,000 monthly transportation allowance for 40 million Nigerians in budget, Senate replies Minister of Finance

No provision for N5,000 monthly transportation allowance for 40 million Nigerians in budget, Senate replies Minister of Finance %Post Title

 

 

 

 

 

Senate on Wednesday  said that there is no provision for N5,000 monthly for 40 million Nigerians as transportation  allowance in 2022 budget.

The Upper Chamber added that there is still a provision for subsidy  in 2022 budget submitted by Executive to National Assembly for consideration.

Minister of  Finance , Budget and National  Planning,  Zainab Ahmed  had said that there will   be N5000 monthly  as transportation  allowance for 40 million Nigerians to cushion effect of subsidy removal.

Speaking with newsmen  after submission  of its Committee  budget proposal,  Senator Solomon  Adeola  who is chairman  Committee on  Finance , said that there is no provision  for N5000 monthly  for 40 million  Nigerians  for transportation allowance  in the 2022 budget  currently  before the National Assembly.

He added  that  before the Executive  can embark on such intervention,  the proposal must come to National Assembly  because it is going to cost N2.4 trillion, wondering on the criteria that will be used to determine the beneficiaries.

He said the proposal is still a rumour to him as the Chairman, Committee on Finance.

The Chairman said, “For us, we still believe it is news because this budget we are considering contains subsidy and if we are passing a budget with subsidy in the fiscal document, we can’t speak because that is the document that is currently before us.

“The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning was quoted as saying that 40 million Nigerians will be paid N5000 as transportation allowance, in lieu of the fuel subsidy.

“I don’t want to go into details for now; I believe that if such proposal is to come to pass, a document to that effect must be sent to National Assembly for us to see how feasible this is and how do we identify the 40 million Nigerians that are going to benefit from this process.

“There are still a lot of issues to be deliberated upon and looked into if eventually this will come to pass and how do we raise this money to pay these 40 million Nigerians because I know that even  the revenue being raised and monies that are coming in from this so called oil and other sources of revenue to the Federal government.

“So, this is not provided for already in the 2022 budget. We don’t have anywhere in the budget where 40 million Nigerians will collect N5000 monthly as transportation allowance totaling N2.4 trillion.

“I know that there must be a budgetary provision for this for us (National Assembly) to consider. That is why I said it is still news out there until it formally comes to the National Assembly for either a virement to the budget or reordering of the budget. For now, I still want to take it as a rumour and as news until it is formally presented before the National Assembly.”

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