President Bukhari to sign N13.588tr budget for 2021
President Muhammadu Bukhari will sign the 13.588 trillion appropriation law for 2021 today, Wednesday, December 30.
This will allow budget execution to begin in January next year.
Although the 2020 budget was approved and signed on time, the coronavirus pandemic canceled its planned implementation in line with the January-December budget cycle.
Last week, the National Assembly passed the $ 13.588 trillion ($ 35 billion) bill in a joint meeting. That’s 505 billion more than the 13.082 trillion estimate presented to the president in October.
Next year’s budget was prepared taking into account the damage done to the economy by the coronavirus pandemic.
His assumptions are $ 40 per barrel; oil production up to 1.86 million barrels of daily production; an exchange rate of N379 / $ and an expected growth rate of three percent.
Amid a recession in the economy, the government has drawn up an ambitious budget for 2021. The Executive Authority provided the MSME Survival Fund, Nigeria’s Youth Investment Fund, a sectoral CBN support program to revitalize the economy. ; The legislator added N505 billion in anticipation of procurement of vaccines to combat COVID-19.
The budget is considered ambitious because the government’s desire to inflate budget figures is not satisfied with a sufficient capacity to generate revenues to meet or exceed spending. What we have is a budget that is already hampered by a deficit even before it becomes law.
The government was alerted after the discovery and exploitation of shale oil. This event prompted the government to realize that the days of overdependence on crude oil were over.
The federal government has struggled to generate alternative income mainly through taxes, but the cost and scale of management have been an albatross around the government’s neck.
According to BudgeIT, “while the spending side of the budget could have increased, the actual federal government revenue increased from only 3.24 trillion. N in 2015 to 3.86 trillion N in 2019, i.e. by 19.3%. The way that the FG has consistently covered its costs has been by increasing unfunded debt and deficits provided by the Central Bank of Nigeria. ”
In the budget, capital expenditures, including 10 state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and credit projects, are estimated at 3.85 trillion. 1.82 trillion AD 370 billion will be spent by federal government ministries, development agencies and agencies on capital integration items and 700 billion NE.
