2017 Budget: FG Set To Release N350bn For Capital Projects

Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, who made the disclosure in Abuja at the public presentation of the 2017 appropriation Act said part of the money will be used to fund other government initiatives scheduled for the fiscal year.

According to the minister: “We are ready, we are having a cash-plan meeting very soon and after that, N350 billion will be released as first tranche of capital releases for the 2017 budget”, she said, while addressing stakeholders who attended the public presentation.

Also speaking, the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Sen. Udoma Udo Udoma, said funding of projects would now be on Project-Based Release System to curb waste of public funds by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

Udoma said henceforth, no MDA is authorised to enter into a foreign denominated contract without the approval of the ministers of Budget and National Planning, and Finance.

Udoma also added that the federal government would strengthen its monitoring and evaluation framework to improve physical inspection and impact assessment of projects and programmes implemented by MDAs.

His words: “We are worried and concerned about the number of abandoned capital projects scattered in their thousands throughout the country, which we inherited from previous administrations. We know that you can’t continue doing things the same way and expect different result.

“So, we have to do things differently. We need to have more targeted releases. We have to look at the projects that are important and can easily be completed. The ministers are working together to ensure that over time, we concentrate our resources on completing important projects, so that we have maximum impact”.

Udoma also said that the Ministry was working with the National Assembly to get the country’s fiscal year adjusted to between January and December.

Udoma added that the high revenue expectation from oil was driven by Joint Venture Calls (JVC) cost reduction, higher production and price, exchange rate as well as additional oil-related revenues.

According to him, Company Income Tax (CIT)  will contribute 15.9 per cent, Value Added Tax (VAT) 4.8 per cent, Independent Revenue 15.9 per cent and others 5.2 per cent.

He also said the projected budget deficit which stood at N2.36 trillion remained relatively low at  2.18 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The minister continued: “This is within the 3 per cent threshold stipulated in the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA). The budget is to be financed mainly by borrowings which have been projected at N2.32 trillion.

“Of this amount, N1.07 trillion is intended to be sourced externally, while N1.25 trillion will be sourced domestically.’’

Udoma stated that N35 billion is expected as revenue from the  outright sale of government property and privatisation of state-owned enterprises.

He said to generate the projected revenue, the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and Customs had been challenged to improve their efficiency and broaden their reach to achieve the set targets in the 2017 budget.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives has insisted that no insertions were made in the 2017 budget by the legislature.

Speaking on the controversy over the budget, the deputy minority whip of the House, Hon. Binta Bello, posited that based on its constitutional powers, the House only redistributed projects in the 2017 budget.

Bello also explained that what the parliament does with budget proposal from the executive is to redistribute to priority areas, given the lawmakers’ knowledge of the needs of the electorate as well as their proximity to the grassroots.

The deputy minority whip clarified that in the 2017 budget, the envelopes proposed for Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) were redistributed to more important projects within the same MDAs, adding that the projects were distributed with those envelops.