Laolu Akande, spokesman to Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, on Wednesday night assured that all is set for the expected assent to the 2017 Appropriation Bill as passed into law by the National Assembly a week ago.
This is unlike the 2016 law, which the Presidency had insisted could not be implemented as passed, leading to further delay of the assent.
The budget of N7.44tr represents an increase of about N140bn over the N7.298tr originally proposed by the Presidency.
In a tweet, Akande announced: “Everything is set, and he (Osinbajo) is satisfied (and) will assent to the 2017 Budget,” not minding the increase, N10bn of which was inthe National Assembly’s budget.
The infrastructure component of the budget stands at N2.24tr and prioritizes projects in sectors of the economy like railway, social housing, special economic zones, social investment, river basin development, Presidential Amnesty Programme, as well as development of the Niger Delta and North East region.
Also, the budget was passed based on assumptions such as: oil price benchmark of $44.50 per barrel, average crude oil production of 2.2m barrels per day and foreign exchange rate of N305/$.
The budget has a debt servicing component of N1.8tr, which represents 24.73% of the budget size; capital expenditure is estimated at N2.714tr, representing a 5.59% increase over what was proposed by the Presidency; while recurrent expenditure (non-debt) stands at N2.65tr. Another N178bn is earmarked for Sinking fund (bonds); N434bn goes to statutory transfers (amount for statutory arms including the National Assembly and National Judicial Council), up by 3.58% over was initially proposed.
To fund the spending plan, the government expects N3.29tr revenue from its share of the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), a projected increase of 4.31% over that proposed initially; while Federal Government’s share of Value Added Tax is projected at N242bn.
Another N262bn is expected from domestic recoveries, asset, fine; N206bn from other Federal Government recoveries; N808bn is expected to come from independent FG revenue N277bn from “other revenue.”
In summary, while N7.44tr is budgeted for spending during the fiscal year, the government expects to rake in N5.08tr in revenue, leaving a huge deficit of N2.35tr for the year.
Meanwhile, of the statutory transfers, the National Assembly would receive N125bn, broken down into N23.789bn total personnel costs; N85.878bn total overhead costs; and total capital expenditure of N14.94bn.
A further breakdown of the figures shows that N14.919bn is total allocation to the Management of the National Assembly, with total personnel costs of N6.714bn, N6.193bn in overhead, while N2.011bn is earmarked for total capital expenditure.
For the Senate, total allocation is N31.398bn is set aside, broken down into N1.856bn form personnel cost; N25.111bn in total overhead costs and N4.493bn for total capital; while the House of Representatives gets N49.052bn in total allocation, out of which N4.923bn is for total personnel cost; N39.635bn for total overhead costs and N4.493bn as total capital expenditure.
The National Assembly Service Commission is billed to get N2.415bn, with N961m as personnel cost; N1.144bn as total overhead costs and N309.791m as total capital expenses.
Legislative aides would get N9.917bn as total personnel costs, N534.968m as overhead costs and then N150m for total capital expenditure
A total of N118.97m is set aside for PAC- Senate as total overhead, while PAC-House gets N142.764m.
Another N12.584bn goes to General Services, broken down into N11.767bn for total overhead costs and N816.928m for capital votes; N4.373bn is for National Assembly Legislative Institute, out of which N1.229bn is for total overhead costs, N2.727bn for total capital expenditure and N416.452m for total personnel costs; just as Service Wide Vote is allocated N391.396m, with no breakdown.