The Senate on Tuesday passed N574,532,726,857 billion as the 2015 supplementary budget.
Under the arrangement, it is N108,895,800,000 billion higher than the N465,636,926,857 billion proposed by President Muhammadu Buhari to the National Assembly for approval two weeks ago.
According to the Senate, the addition was to make it possible for government to pay subsidy claims for the three months of October, November and December which were not accommodated in the initial N413, 363, 134, 505 billion voted for the payment of subsidy claims.
The budget, as passed, is made up of N522,258,934,505 billion for payment of subsidy claims and N29,958,865,512 billion for Operation Zaman Lafiya, a name given to the military operations against insurgents in the North East. Other expenditure items contained in the extra budget include N10.6 billion for outstanding payment of the service gratuity and allowances of outgone and incoming legislators and legislative aides.
Meanwhile, another N5billion was voted for payment into the Victim Support Fund established to take care of the victims of insurgency.
At the end of the session, President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, directed the committees of the Senate on petroleum and finance sectors to properly monitor the payment of the subsidy claims and expose any corrupt practice that may be associated with it.
