There were strong indications, yesterday, that the National Assembly and the Presidency might have reached a truce over the 2013 budget.
This emerged yesterday when the Senate Majority Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba announced on the floor that the President would now formally present the budget sometime next week.
The proposed presentation of the 2013 budget to the joint session of the National Assembly by President Goodluck Jonathan was earlier scheduled for today.
The president had in separate letters to the Senate and the House of Representatives on September 18 requested to present his budget address before a joint session of both chambers.
However, Sen. Ndoma-Egba? told senators that “the budget will be presented sometime next week. So I report that we should clarify the status of that presidential communication so that distinguished senators will not be in any doubt as to whether or not the budget will be laid tomorrow(today).
“It will not be laid tomorrow. When a date is communicated it will be read on the floor for the benefit of the senators,”
Also,a request by the President Goodluck Jonathan for the approval $7,905,690,000.00 for pipeline projects under the medium term (2012-2014) external borrowing plan was stood down by the Senate on grounds of a need for further clarification.
Sen. Ndoma-Egba said “We need further clarification from the executive on this communication and for that reason for that reason I move that the item be stood down for another legislative day”
It could be recalled that the Senate on Tuesday forwarded to its committees on Finance and National Planning, the 2013-2015 Medium Term Fiscal Framework (MTFF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) for legislative action with a mandate to hasten and submit their report early next week.
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