The Senate Committee on Appropriation is seeking an increase in the 465.5 billion Naira supplementary budget submitted to the upper chamber last week to 573.5 billion Naira.

The new figure includes an additional 108 billion Naira meant for fuel subsidy in the last quarter of 2015, which was not captured in the 465.5 billion Naira supplementary budget.

The decision, leading to the increased budget, followed the discovery by the Senate Committee on Appropriation that the subsidy captured in the budget was only for the period covering January to September.

The committee frowned at the development, stressing that leaving the subsidy for the period of October to December out of the budget would be counter-productive and would lead the nation to another round of fuel scarcity in no distant time.

Credit: ChannelsTV