The senior lawyer said more clarifications need to be made on the proposed expenditure.
Human Rights Lawyer, Femi Falana, has asked the National Assembly not to pass the 2012 supplementary appropriation bill recently sent by President Goodluck Jonathan to the lawmakers.
The President sent a supplementary budget of N161.6 billion to the National Assembly. The budget, if approved, is supposed to be used to settle the remaining fuel subsidy payments for 2012.
Mr. Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, however said the lawmakers should not approve the budget.
“In 2011 the National Assembly appropriated N245 billion for fuel subsidy. In violation of the Appropriation Act 2011 and the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007 the Central Bank of Nigeria paid N2.3 trillion for fuel subsidy on the basis of the fraudulent recommendations of the Federal Ministries of Finance and Petroleum Resources,” the lawyer said.
The National Assembly approved N888.3 billion for fuel subsidy in 2012. While defending the 2013 budget before the House of Representatives a fortnight ago the Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, Stanley Reginald had disclosed that a total sum of N679 billion had been spent on fuel subsidy from January – October, 2012 and that the sum of N670 billion had been saved by the Federal Government.
“At an average of N67.9 billion per month the sum of N135 billion is required to settle the fuel subsidy bill for the months of November and December, 2012. If the said sum of N135.8 billion is deducted from the N208 billion in the fuel subsidy account there should be an outstanding balance of N72.2 billion in the account at the end of the year.
“In the light of the foregoing the National Assembly should not approve the Supplementary Appropriation Bill of N161 billion for fuel subsidy to cover November and December, 2012.
“The Federal Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, Stanley Reginald, should be invited to the National Assembly to justify the Bill as the figures don’t add up,” the lawyer said.
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