ABUJA – President Goodluck Jonathan has sent a revised budget proposal of N4.648 trillion for the year 2012 to the National Assembly. The revised budget is N101 billion short from the budget proposal of N4.749 trillion which the President presented to the National Assembly in the December 2011. The proposal also includes N888 billion allocations to petroleum subsidy which was not part of the initial budget. Jonathan in a letter to Senate read by Senate President David Mark explained that the review of the budget and the 2012-2014 revenue frameworks were necessitated by the need for government to accommodate the reintroduction of the petroleum subsidy scheme. The letter read: “Recent domestic developments, key among which was the partial withdrawal of subsidy on petroleum products and the ripple effect on the government revenue and expenditure items, have necessitated the revision of the 2012-2014 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and the 2012 budget proposal which I presented to the National Assembly on the 13th of December 2011. “In this respect, I hereby forward copies of the revised 2012 budget proposal. It is my hope that the distinguished Senate will kindly consider and approve these revised proposals expeditiously.” Details of the revised budget brought by the President showed a downward review of most of government spending captured in the first version of the 2012 budget proposal. In the revised budget, capital expenditure was scaled down from N1.39 trillion initially proposed by Jonathan to N1.281 trillion. The cut further extends to recurrent which now stood at N2.432 trillion as against N2.471 proposal by the President. The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, which initially had N40 billion, was cut by N5 billion to N35 billion. Other reductions captured in the revised budget proposal includes N54 billion for Niger Delta, now N48 billion. The Universal Basic Education, UBE budget was also reduced by N5 billion. It now have N63 billion as against N68 billion. Budget proposal for the Presidency was slashed by N2.7 billion. The Secretary to the Government of the Federation budget was cut by another N2 billion, that is from N47 billion to N45 billion. The slash affected the Ministries of Education and Petroleum. But Defence made up of the main ministry, the Army, Navy and Air Force were not affected by the cut. Rather, allocations to defence in the revised budget was increased by N6 billion, rising from N325 billion to N331 billion. Further details of the budget showed the National Assembly and the office of the National Security Adviser retaining their previous allocations.