The Senate has passed the sum of N4, 877, 209, 156, 933 for the 2012 budget at the plenary on Thursday.

The 2012 Appropriation Act was increased from the original N4.6 trillion sent to the National Assembly by President Goodluck Jonathan in December 2011, to accommodate the SURE program while the sum of N888 billion was appropriated for fuel subsidy.

The initial budget had no provision for fuel subsidy following the removal of the subsidy on January 1. But days of widespread protests and industrial action called by the labour union, made the federal government return a partial sum for the fuel subsidy.

The chairman Senate committee on Appropriation, Senator Ahmad Maccido, told journalists that the budget for the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) was included in the budget while that of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) budget was left out in the 2012 budget.

According to the Senate spokesman, Senator Enyinaya Abaribe, “the CBN governor is hiding under the CBN act but the Fiscal Responsibility Act stipulates that budgets from all government agencies should be scrutinized by the national assembly.”

He noted that the problem with the CBN budget is a legal matter which the National Assembly would take up.

The CBN governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi in a letter to the House of Representative earler in the year stated that the budget of the CBN is not subject to the yearly appropriation, claiming the National has delegated the power of such appropriation to the board of the CBN as stipulated by the CBN Act.

The letter stated that “by section 6 (3) of the CBN Act 2007, the National Assembly is deemed to have donated its authorisation powers under section 80 (3) of the constitution as it relates to the budget of the CBN to the board of the CBN.”

Mr Sanusi’s letter was in response to an earlier letter by the House of Representative Committee on Appropiation, which requested the CBN to forward its 2012 budget estimates to the assembly for appropriation.

The lawmakers had threatened not to pass the budget unless 31 revenue generating agencies including the CBN and the NNPC forward their budgets to the National Assembly for appropriation.

Mr. Abaribe confirmed that the budget has been harmonized by both houses of the national assembly and would consequently return to the executive.