By Ummi Ismaeel,
Minna
Governor Abubakar Sani Bello of Niger State on Thursday, December 14, 2017, presented a budget of N128.10 billion for the 2018 fiscal year against the current year’s N108, 074, 298, 251. 00 to the State House of Assembly.
The next years’ budget, which surpassed that of 2017 by about N19 bilion, has a Statutory allocation at N57, 610, 992, 019; Value Added Tax (VAT), N9, 890, 656, 457; Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), N11, 650, 465,457; Capital receipts, N35, 854, 489, 391; Paris Club Refund, N10 billion; while Returns from Pensions is N3 billion.
From last year’s ‘‘Budget of Consolidaion to The Peoples’ Budget’’, Governor Bello said implementation of the document would be more of community participation-based, all inclusiveness and, responsiveness to the yearnings and aspirations of Nigerlites.
Total projections for the 2018 budget, according to Govenor Bello, is N128, 010, 602, 977, which is more than the 2017 approved budget by N19, 996, 304, 726 approximately, 16.62 percent between the previous and present proposal.
Bello also told the legislature that the 2018 budget would be guided by resources projections to be generated from traditional sources of income and not dependent on monies from the federal allocations.
The document before the legislature, Bello said, comprises, recurrent expenditure of N52, 151, 626, 082 which is 40.74 per cent of the total budget. With Personnel Cost put at N91, 016, 961, 635, Consolidated Funds charges of N9, 743, 464, 447 and Overhead Cost of N11, 391, 200.
While capital expenditure stands at N75, 858, 976,895 or 59.26 percent of the total budget size, a breakdown of the total package is as follows; Administration, N9, 944, 734, 640; Economic, N44, 132, 945, 270; Social, N20, 471, 296, 985; while the sum of N1, 310, 000, 000 was earmarked for Law and Justice within the year under review.
The Speaker, Niger State House of Assembly, Ahmed Marafa, in his remarks, assured the Governor of continued cordial working relationship between the executive and legislative arm of government in the state and promised to ensure early passage of the bill.
