THE Federal Government will be $1.5 billion richer after the passage of the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contract (Amendment) Bill by the National Assembly, Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, said on Tuesday.

The Senate also adjourned plenary for two weeks to enable its Standing Committees engage Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) for the defence of their annual budget proposals.

Lawan said the upper chamber would resume plenary on October 29 and warned that any agency that refuses to appear before the relevant committees to defend its budget during the period would not have revenue allocated to it for next year.

Lawan said: “By passing this (PSC) Bill, Nigeria will be at least $1.5billion richer in 2020 as a result of passing this act.

“I want to congratulate the joint committee and the president on the executive side of government because in the initiation and process of amending this bill, both sides of government have worked together tirelessly.

“Our committees together with the NNPC (Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation) worked together till 5am this morning to put together this report.

“I want to congratulate the sponsors and number one sponsor is President Muhammadu Buhari who  raised the need to amend the Bill in his budget speech of 2020 to us last week. We also recieved an executive communication from him.”