The Federal Government has so far borrowed N882.122 billion to finance the 2015 budget, Mrs. Anastasia Daniel-Nwobia, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance, has said.
Mrs Daniel-Nwobia made the disclosure on Tuesday in Abuja at a public hearing organized by the House of Representatives ad hoc committee on non-implementation of capital projects in 2015 Appropriation Act. She was represented at the hearing by Mr. Aliyu Gusau the Director-General, Budget Office of the Federation.
She said that N502.122 billion appropriated for domestic borrowing in the budget was raised and disbursed to Consolidated Revenue Fund Account (CRF).
She added that N380 billion appropriated for external borrowing was funded through domestic bond market due to the decline in revenue caused by dwindling oil prices and the processing time to conclude external borrowing. “Accordingly, a total amount of N882.122 billion appropriated for both domestic and external borrowing has been fully raised,’’ she said. Daniel-Nwobia, however noted, that despite the ongoing cash crunch, the ministry continued to evolve fiscal policies to grow the economy. She said the policies include measures to diversify the economy, promote fiscal discipline, and improve non-oil revenue generation amongst other measures to improve the well-being of Nigerians.
On revenue performance, Daniel-Nwobia said that out of N3.45 trillion that was appropriated, only N1.74 trillion had been realized as at September. On expenditure performance, she said that out of N1.83 trillion budgeted for personnel cost in the recurrent budget, N944.76 billion had so far been released as at the second quarter of 2015 and N1.24 trillion as at August . “For overhead, with a budget of N177.60 billion, N89.88 billion has been released as at May. “On statutory transfer, of the N375.62 billion budgeted, N187.81 billion has been released as at second quarter and N250.41billion as at August,“she said.
She added that N149.92 billion was released from the N231. 41 budgeted for pensions as at August 2015. Daniel-Nwobia also gave a breakdown of monies so far released for debt servicing as N782. 57 billion out of N953.62 billion budgeted. According to her, the figure represents 82. 1 per cent so far paid as at August 2015.
She said that N14.713 billion, representing 70 per cent of the N21. 03 billion provisions for SURE-P implementation had been released. “Also N557 billion was budgeted for capital expenditure out of which N55.80 billion has been released due to revenue challenges,’’ the Permanent Secretary said. She said that the ministry had issued waivers, concessions and exemptions to targeted imports, especially for equipment and machinery. “This will support economic growth, job creation and development of domestic industries such as agriculture, power and mines and steel,’’ she said.
Daniel-Nwobia listed challenges in meeting projected revenue in the 2015 budget to include dwindling oil price and production shortfall due to crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism. Others include non-remittances by revenue generating agencies, shortfall in Customs collections and smuggling activities across the borders and difficulties from generation and collection of revenue from the North-East.
Chairman of the Committee, Rep. Aliyu Patigi (APC Kwara) urged the ministry to constitute inter-agency committee with relevant institutions to come up with up to date documents on September 22. “The presentation is very sketchy and does not give a holistic view for full understanding of what the 2015 budget implementation is all about. “We expected you to provide vivid insights into the regime of import duty waiver using explanatory notes to describe how and what was done and why. “You have not done that and we can’t say for sure that the position you presented before us is the right one. “Because each day, companies keep declaring profits running into hundreds of billions and yet they are given incentives and waiver when sectors such as the textile industry has no such consideration for revival,’’ Patigi said
