The Senate yesterday began debate of the general principles of budget 2017 presented to a joint session of the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari on December 14, last year.
Senate Leader, Senator Ahmed Lawan, flagged off the debate of a Bill for an Act to authorise the issue from the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation the total sum of N7, 298,507,709,937 only, of which N419,020,648,000 only, is for statutory transfers, N1,663,885,430,499 only, is for Debt Service, N177,460,296,707 only, is for sinking fund for maturing bonds, N2,979,151,756,196 only, is for recurrent (Non-Debt) expenditure while the sum of N2,058,,989,578,536 only, is for contribution to the Development fund for capital expenditure.
Lawan noted that with the 2017 budget of recovery and growth, the future of the country looks bright as the year to year growth in capital expenditure demonstrated the governmentโs desire to make the country more competitive in order to bring the economy out of recession and into steady growth and prosperity.
He said the 2017 capital budget was designed to align expenditure to long-term objective, sustainable development as well as fiscal consolidation, inclusive growth and job creation, stabilisation of the welfare of Nigerians by focusing more on micro-economic stability, consolidating structural reforms and enhancing governance and institutional goals.
Meanwhile, legislative work on the budget also commenced at the House of Representatives with a debate on the general principles of the appropriation bill.
House Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila said the N7 trillion budget estimates was ambitious but that ambition is the precursor to success.
He said: โPrior to now, we ran successive budgets averaging N4 trillion at a time when this country was earning far more than it is now at 100 to 120 dollars a barrel.
โThe last two budgets of this administration have upped the ante to (between) N6 and N7 trillion at a time when oil dropped to $30 and rose to $50.
โThis is ambitious but ambition is the precursor to success. Prior to this time, capital allocation in our yearly budget was way below 30 per cent and now this administration has raised it to over 30 per cent. Before now, budget performance has been about 30 per cent but somehow with little resources available, this administration hovers around the mid 50s range in terms of budget performance.
โWe are not there yet, 50 per cent is not even good enough but its important to know where we were coming from to understand where we are and are going. Thatโs the story of this administration. How has this administration been able to achieve this? It is very simple.
โItโs blocked leakages, aggressively pursued and broadened its tax base and collection, introduced reforms such as Treasury Single Account (TSA), zero based budgeting and eliminated ghost workers.
โRecession is a word that describes the downward turn in a countryโs economy. Nigeria has been hit as has many oil producing countries. This budget seeks to reboot the economy with a massive dose of capital injection and payment of local debts to contractors which will help stimulate and reflate the economy.โ
Gbajabiamila also said the government continues to lay emphasis on diversification of the economy particularly in the areas of agriculture and solid minerals hoping that manufacturers and Power Ministry are allocated a substantial part of the budget.
