By OKEY NDIRIBE & EMMAN OVUAKPORIE

ABUJA — The sharp disagreement between the Presidency and National Assembly, NASS, over the 2013 Budget re-echoed yesterday with the arrival of the long-awaited letter from President Goodluck Jonathan requesting the lawmakers to reverse themselves on some key areas in the fiscal document.

The President had  sent an amendment to the Budget Act and Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) for 2013 to the National Assembly.

The President’s attachment to the covering letter read as follows: “A Bill for an Amendment to the 2013 Appropriation Act to authorise the issue from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the federation the total sum N4,987,382,196,160 only of which N388,063,000,000 only is for statutory transfers, N591,764,000,000 is for debt service, N2,418,976,391,494 is for recurrent (non-debt) expenditure, while the balance of N1,588,578,805,197 only is for contribution to the Development Fund for Capital Expenditure for the year ending on 31st day of December, 2013.”

In the letter, entitled “Submission of the 2013 Amendment Budget Proposal and the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) Amendment Budget Proposal” addressed to both the President of the Senate Senator David Mark, and Speaker, House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, the President expressed dissatisfaction with the provisions of the Budget Act relating to the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) and some other clauses.

The President had complained about clause 10 of the Appropriation Act which stated that “all revenue however described including all fees received, fines, grants, budgetary provisions and all internally and externally generated revenue shall not be spent by SEC for recurrent or capital purposes or for any other matters, nor liabilities thereon incurred except with prior appropriation and approval by the National Assembly.

Jonathan insisted that the clause ought not to have been inserted in the first place.

According to him: “Considering the fact that the budget of SEC

does not form part of the core 2013 Federal Budget as presented to the National Assembly, I believe that this clause ought not to have been inserted in 2013 Appropriation Act in the first place.

“Secondly, the import of the clause is tantamount to shutting down the business of the Commission with a potential negative impact on the Capital Market.”

Nevertheless, the President had thanked   the federal lawmakers in his letter  for speedily passing the 2013 Appropriation Act.

It would be recalled that the National Assembly had refused to make appropriation for SEC in the 2013 Budget and also barred the Commission from spending funds accruing to it from any source whatsoever.

It was learnt that the clause on SEC was among the factors which delayed the President’s assent to the budget. The budget was passed by the National Assembly last December, submitted to the Presidency mid January and signed into law by President Jonathan last month.