Abuja — The Senate on Thursday approved the N683 billion Supplementary Appropriation Bill, 24 hours after it gave a deadline of one week to its Appropriation Committee to submit its recommendations on it.

But it merely scaled Second Reading in the House of Representatives where it was referred to the Joint Committees on Appropriation and Finance for consideration.

The passage in the Upper House was based on a report presented by the Appropriation Committee Chairman, Iyiola Omisore. A total N288 billion is voted for emergency power projects, and N220,241,326,816 is for additional recurrent (non-debt) expenditure.

Up to N463,060,641,471 is set aside for additional capital expenditure.

Omisore, quoting the executive, told the Chamber that funds for the supplementary budget will be derived from:

-Additional inflows into the Federation Account expected from the Federal Government's share of excess crude distribution till May (which is N98,090,000,000) and additional revenue from funds returned to the treasury worth N160,000,000,000.

-Upward projection from independent revenue of N36,123,842,527 as well as funds from Excess Crude Account of $2,463,448,500 equivalent

-Savings from the 2008 Appropriation Amendment Act of N100,868,651,261 is expected to be N288,223,474,500 as agreed by the National Economic Council at a meeting on June 19, 2008.

Energy will get N324,123,474,500 while N50,000,000,000 is for renegotiated debts owed contractors, and N87,627,166,971 for counterpart funding for the Mambilla hydro power project.

A total N54,047,841,476 is budgeted for defence, N68,000,000,000 for public service wage adjustment.

Back in the Lower Chamber, House Leader Tunde Akogun urged his colleagues to accelerate the passage of the Bill, but Minority Leader, Mohammed Ndume, countered that it is not necessary to pass it two months to the end of the year.

Ndume advised that the Bill be merged with the 2009 budget, which Appropriation Committee Chairman, Ayo Adeseun, said is expected next week.

Adeseun allayed fears that it is not necessary to approve the Bill just because the executive has limited time to implement it, saying it primarily covers increased salaries for political office holders and power contracts.

Akogun had sought the lawmakers' co-operation in authorising the issuance of N683,301,968,287 from the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) for the supplementary budget.

Speaker Dimeji Bankole also urged the House to consider the Bill because of its importance to power supply stability.

Finance Committee Chairman, John Enoh, added that his colleagues should pass it bearing in mind the importance of the energy sector to economic growth.

Rules and Business Committee Chairman, Ita Enang, equally expressed support for the Bill since it would be funded from the CRF and not from the amount to be recovered from the power probe.

Most state Assemblies have mandated their Governors to join in funding the emergency power scheme.