The Centre for Social Justice, a civil society organization has advocated the need for the National Assembly to delete Clause 10 of the proposed 2013 Appropriation Act on the ground that passing the clause into law will amount to scrapping of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) without repealing the law establishing the commission.

Speaking in Abuja at a forum to review the proposed amendments to the act, lead director of the centre, Mr Eze Onyekpere, noted that SEC’s budget does not form part of the core 2013 budget as presented to the National Assembly.

According to him, “the clause ought not to have been inserted in the 2013 Appropriation Act.”

He added that the clause amounts to a total shut down of the business of the commission with a potential negative impact on the capital market.

The centre therefore appealed to the National Assembly to delete the clause which mandates the Securities and Exchange Commission not to expend any revenue for recurrent or capital purposes without prior appropriation and approval by the National Assembly.