The consideration of a bill to amend the 2013 Appropriation Act failed to commence on Thursday at the Senate due to lack of a lead debate to introduce it for second reading.
Also at the House of Representatives, members failed to debate the proposed amendments to the 2013 budget by President Goodluck Jonathan.
The budget was listed as the third item of the day on the House' Order Paper. However, the Speaker, Mr. Aminu Tambuwal, skipped it as he presided over proceedings.
Tambuwal gave no explanations for moving to the next item.
Thursday was the second time the bill would be put off at the Senate after being listed on the Notice Paper on Tuesday scheduled for Wednesday and then on the Order Paper on Thursday.
When it was time to take the bill, Leader of the Senate, Victor Ndoma-Egba, said the lead debate for the bill was not ready.
He moved that the bill "be stood down until another legislative day," a motion that was accepted after it was ably seconded.
It will be recalled that the President had written the National Assembly requesting some amendments in the 2013 budget as passed and assented to.
The amendment was part of the agreements reached between the legislature and the executive in the process of resolving the impasse, which attended the passage of the budget.
In a letter read on the floor of the Senate on the March 19, 2013 by the President of the Senate, David Mark, Jonathan had requested the upper chamber to amend a bill he sent on the 2 budget.
The National Assembly passed a total ofN4.987tn in December 2012, which was signed into law by the President.
Of the sum, N388.06bn was for statutory transfers; N591.76bn for debt servicing; N2.42tn for recurrent expenditure, while the balance of N1.588tn was for capital expenditure.
The spokesman of the House of Representatives, Mr. Zakari Mohammed, later said that members had resolved to debate the budget on Tuesday next week.
The PUNCH had reported exclusively on Monday that the House might not debate the budget this week, amid speculation that lawmakers had resolved not to consider Jonathan's proposals.
Two weeks ago, the House deferred the debate on the excuse that the details of the proposed amendments were not sent by the Budget Office of the Federation.
The office forwarded the details last week and copies were distributed to members.
However, on Thursday, Mohammed claimed the House could not debate the proposals because many members were away on oversight duties and "attending the convention of their political parties."
Mohammed, who spoke with journalists, also noted that the proposed amendments turned out to be more than what lawmakers expected.
He said, "The amendments came in three volumes. This is like a new budget. We expected a few areas for amendment, but what we have now is like a fresh budget.
"The budget is a serious matter. So, we have said that let those members who are away come back and we can all lookat it. By Tuesday, the House will give a clear direction on the budget."
When he was pressed further, Zakari hinted that the budget "might be returned the way it came."
According to him, some of the amendments do not carry the input of the National Assembly "like areas where we said they should roll over the capital component of the 2012 budget."
