Taraba Assembly okays N173bn budget for 2023

The Taraba State House of Assembly on Wednesday passed the budget N173 billion estimate recently presented by Governor Darius Ishaku into law.

Though the governor had pegged the estimate at N172,734bn, the lawmakers added N500 million, putting the budget at N173,234bn.

The bill’s passage followed the adoption of the House Committee on Finance and Appropriation report during plenary.

Speaker of the House, Prof. Joseph Albasu Kunini, said the N500m the House added to the budget was to take care of the Taraba State Independent Electoral Commission, which was not allocated any funds in the 2023 budget.

On the loans taken by the state government, Kunini said no government could function without debt, especially when the debts are within the purview of the law.

“The budget is a transitional one and the government will want to complete all ongoing projects, so the budget is a realistic one.

“We noticed that TSIEC was not allocated any funds and this government is committed to conducting local government elections periodically, so, there is need to allocate money to the agency to conduct local government elections,” he said.