The Federal Government, on Tuesday, admitted spending  N222.1 billion on fuel subsidy between January and July without the approval from the National Assembly and without its provisions  in the 2015 Appropriation.

Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance, Mrs Anastasia Daniel-Nwaobia, represented by the Director General, Budget Office of the Federation, Mr Aliyu Gusau, made the  revelation  in Abuja, on Tuesday, in her  presentation  at the ongoing public hearing organized by the House of Representatives ad hoc committee on the non-implementation of the 2015 capital budget.

She, however, explained the Federal Government, in one of its fiscal items, made the extra-budgetary spending under “Emergency Intervention (fuel subsidy crisis),” to end the eight-month long fuel scarcity which started in December 2014 and ended in July 2015.

This came just as the committee queried the finance ministry over N600 billion it  borrowed from Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)to finance the payment of salaries and wages, contrary to the provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, which “provides that money borrowed should be used to fund only capital projects.”

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