Lagos State governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola yesterday presented a budget proposal of N489.69 billion to the Lagos State House of Assembly for approval for the 2015 fiscal year. The budget presentation witnessed by many All Progressives Congress (APC) party faithful is the same as that of 2014, which stood at N489.69 billion.
One peculiar feature is that it still retained its zero deficit in order to ensure that the next government does not inherit a deficit, while the capital and recurrent ratio is 51:49 for 2015 which is the same as 2014 budget. The budget is made up of capital expenditure of N249.232 billion and a recurrent expenditure of N239.948 billion in the ratio of 51:49 respectively.
The budget breakdown revealed that Economic Affairs has the highest allocation of N146.305billion, followed by General Service, N107.69 billion. Housing and Community Amenities, Education, have N82.14 billion; N49.033 billion respectively while Health got N44.619 billion and Environmental Protection, N34.953 billion. Others are Public Safety and Order, N15.547 billion; Recreation, Culture and Religion, N3.118 billion; Social Protection, N1.589 billion, Planning Reserve, N2.26 billion and Contigency, N2.448 billion.
The governor said ,“As you will observe, we have retained essentially the same budget size as 2014. This is for many reasons. One reason is that we have kept a zero deficit in order to ensure that the next government does not inherit a deficit. This will give them room to start off very quickly when their programmes begin to crystallize and they may need to raise funds in order to start off. “Another reason is that our budgets, like all good budgets are not only defined by plans and expectations. They make more sense if they are defined by resources. Our resources have been severely adversely affected by the management and lack of transparency of the Federal Government and her agencies of the nation’s oil proceeds. Fashola pointed out that the Federal Government is still owing Lagos State Government N51billion certified and unpaid, out of N59billion expended on Federal Government roads in Lagos.
According to him, “They are also owing pension obligations of N673.67 billion which they have not paid. And as all of us are aware, oil prices have dropped from $100 per barrel and above to just around $80 per barrel at the time we finalized the budget. “Our monthly receipts from FAAC have fallen below our usually conservative expectations for the first time in seven years. And lately, we are noticing that reduced patronage of the tourism and entertainment facilities has occurred in the aftermath of the Ebola outbreak.This has translated to reduced consumption and consequently reduced incomes in the Consumption Tax sub-head of our Internally Generated Revenue.”
Receiving the budget the Speaker Lagos State House of Assembly Rt. Hon. Adeyemi Ikuforiji said the presentation is necessary to obtain Legislative consent or approval for the amount of money to be spent on specific items in the coming financial year. Ikuforiji remarked that “ This 2015 Appropriation Bill is epochal: it is the last budget proposal to be presented by Governor Babatunde Fashola; it is the last I will be receiving as Speaker Adeyemi Ikuforiji; and for this singular reason, we hope your Excellency has reserved the best for the last, especially for the betterment of Lagos and Lagosians.
