FG Proposes N6trn Budget for 2016

The Federal Government has proposed a budget of N6 trillion for 2016 at an oil benchmark of 38 dollars per barrel in the Medium Term Expenditure Framework approved by the Federal Executive Council.

The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Sen. Udoma Udo Udoma, disclosed this yesterday while addressing State House Press Corps after an emergency Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.

According to the minister, the Medium Term Expenditure Framework set out the policies and fundamental economic underpinning of the budget of government over the next three years

He said the government would be working with 2.2 million barrels per day production, “We believe it is achievable, particularly because with the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill which we are working to achieve, we believe that that is actually a modest figure; that we should be able to produce something higher than that.

According to him, the plan will be submitted to the National Assembly and a feedback expected after which the budget will be finalised with all the details embedded, adding that the funding for the budget would come from earnings from the non-oil sector.

“We are looking at trying to get more money from the various government agencies, policing their collection and trying to get more money from them.

“We will also look at keeping down our recurrent budget that means we are looking at savings that we can make from overheads.

“We will also look at the deficiency from our revenue collecting agencies like the FIRS, in terms of companies’ income tax; in terms of VAT, and then the difference we will have to borrow.

“But the level of borrowing that we anticipate and we are projecting will be well within the maximum that we allow, which is three per cent of the GDP, because we want a prudent budget; we want a credible budget.’’

Udoma further said that the council was working on the exchange rate that the Central Bank of Nigeria had given for the budget, adding that it was also looking into whether fuel subsidy would be retained in 2016.

According to him, government is projecting almost 30 per cent of the budget on capital projects, up from the 15 per cent or so that it is currently.

“We will try and reduce overheads, but keep personnel cost; we are not going to adjust it by much.

“But we at expecting some savings from the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) which we are using; so we are not cutting anybody’s salary; everybody will get their salaries.’’