President Bola Tinubu has asked the national assembly to increase the 2024 appropriation act by N6.2 trillion.
Tinubu’s request was contained in a letter read by Senate President Godswill Akpabio on the floor of the upper legislative chamber on Wednesday.
This increases the 2024 budget to N34.9 trillion from an initial N28. 7 trillion budget Tinubu signed into law on January 1.
Tinubu is seeking an amendment to the budget to provide for N3.2 trillion for infrastructure projects and N3 trillion for recurrent expenditure.
Tinubu asked the national assembly to amend the Finance Act of 2023 to tax windfalls gotten by banks owing to “foreign exchange gains”.
“Furthermore, the proposed amendments to the Finance Acts 2023 are required to a one-time windfall tax on the foreign exchange gains realised by banks in their 2023 financial statements to fund capital infrastructure development, education, and healthcare as well as welfare initiatives all which are components of the Renewed Hope Agenda,” he said.
On September 12, 2023, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) directed banks to stop utilising gains from the revaluation of the naira to pay dividends or finance operations.
The financial regulator said a review of the foreign exchange (FX) regime change showed the banks are in a position to profit from the policy because of its potential to significantly increase the naira value of banks’ foreign currency (FCY) assets and liabilities.
On June 14, the CBN officially unified the multiple FX rate systems, collapsing all FX windows into the investors’ and exporters’ (I&E) window.
The policy resulted in a significant depreciation of the local currency, causing significant levels of volatility in the FX market.
