Senate passes N4.971trn 2011 budget
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- Category: Business and Economy
- Published on Thursday, 17 March 2011 01:54
- Written by Punch
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THE Senate, on Wednesday, approved the sum of N4.971 trillion for the 2011 Appropriation as against N4.22 trillion budget proposal presented by President Goodluck Jonathan to the joint session of the National Assembly.
Consequently, the sum of $5.4 billion is for Joint Venture Production and with a target of seven per cent Gross Domestic Product (GDP) upon the compromise reached with the Federal Ministry of Finance and other revenue generating agencies.
However, out of the approved sum, N2,467,168,724,129 is for recurrent expenditure, while N1,562,999,158,775 is for capital expenditure.
Equally, the sum of N445,096,682,115 is for debt servicing and N496,617,087,670 is for statutory transfers.
The chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Iyiola Omisore, told Senate reporters immediately after the approval that surpluses were largely deployed to reduce the budget deficit in line with international best practices.
He explained that the 2011 Appropriation was extended to March 31, 2011 in order to ensure effective implementation of the Appropriation Act and avoid crisis in the nation’s economy.
Omisore informed that some agencies that responded to the committee’s invitation like the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) regrettably lacked adequate knowledge of budgetary processes, disclosing that the establishment of the Sovereign Wealth Fund Authority would replace the sharing of Excess Crude fund which, according to him, was illegal.
He explained that the budget had an additional N312 billion from N4.22 trillion presented because the “Executive kept on sending additional proposals till last Friday, 11th March 2011, with adjustment, differentials to augment the Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) key priority expenditures. Besides the extra funding, modifications were effected in the budget of certain MDAs due to re-prioritisation of their spending within the original ceilings.”
He said the 2011 budget was premised on government’s determination to establish and strengthen the sound macroeconomic environment that, “Nigeria needs to ensure the prosperity of our citizens; attract investment, facilitate private sector growth, boost employment generation and ensure wealth creation and other socio-economic development goals under the Vision 20:2020 framework.”
The breakdown indicated that Defence/Ministry of Defence/Army/Air Force/Navy got the highest share of N311,692,345,592; Education got N306.3 billion; Police formation and commands got N296,569,995,125; Health got N203,338,852,933; Interior got N152,310,965,961; Works got N86,684,115,362; National Security Adviser got N63,252,948,842 while Secretary to the Government of the Federation got N67,604,822,204.
Others include Youth Development N44,208,608,401; Foreign and Intergovernmental Affairs N40,992,135,003; Petroleum Resources got N38,489,462,056; Agriculture and Rural Development
N34,213,326,513; Culture and National Orientation Agency got N17,916,793,825; Justice got N27,714,987,811; Information and Communications got N28,021,995,211; Presidency got N29,583,128,892; Science and Technology got N23,110,277,445 while Commerce and Industry got N10,601,160,220 while FCT got zero allocation.
On the capital expenditure, Works got N188,976,911,405; N100 billion for presidential intervention projects; Power got N99,071,180,886; National Service Adviser got N87,880,603,628; Niger Delta got N88,400,001,680; Water Resources got N73,725,333,674; FCT got N70,183,583,306; Education got N59,567,897,860; Defence/MOD/Army/Air Force/Navy got N68,784,705,571; Science and Technology got N60,249,988,273; Health got N63,393,418,568; Transport got N50,304,463,249; Lands and Housing got N52,468,474,724; Aviation got N33,741,977,785 while Environment got N17,993,615,642.
