NAN-HE-4
Budget
By Chinyere Joel-Nwokeoma
Lagos, Nov. 16, 2016 (NAN) Some financial experts, on Wednesday, warned that if the impasse on the 2017 budget lingered on, it would affect the budget implementation and increase the current economic slowdown.
They told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the lingering crisis between the Federal Government and the National Assembly on the 2017 budget was not good for economic development.
Prof. Sheriffadeen Tella of the Department of Economics, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, said that the country needed to strengthen, present and approve the budget early so as to achieve the desired goals.
Tella called on the Ministry of Finance and the Budget office to work closely with the National Assembly for effective resolution of the pending issues to ensure passage of the budget latest by January 2017.
According to him, the challenges facing the country should not be compounded with the budget impasse.
He said that the nation would continue to experience budget spill over with the development.
“Whatever we want to achieve in one year, we can’t achieve it again with the impasse because there will be a spill over,’’ Tella said.
Tella appealed to the National Assembly to give the budget accelerated hearing in the interest of the economy.
Dr Uche Uwaleke, the Head of Banking And Finance Department, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, said the country was running late on the issue of the 2017 budget.
Uwaleke stated that the development was worrisome and detrimental to economic growth.
“The Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2007 requires the framework for the budget, that is MTEF/FSP, to be submitted to the National Assembly for consideration at least four months to the end of the financial year.
“But, the 2017-2019 MTEF was not forwarded till Oct. 4 and to make matters worse, it was returned by the Senate on the ground that the document lacked details,’’ Uwaleke said.
He said that the executive should expedite action on the document and re-submit it to the Senate for immediate consideration and approval.
Uwaleke, however, urged the Senate to ensure that the 2017 appropriation bill was attended to before the end of the year once the issue was resolved.
NAN reports that government planned to spend an estimated N6.812 trillion as its budget for 2017.
The figure is about 13.3 per cent higher than N6.06 trillion budgeted for 2016.
It also pegged the oil benchmark at 42.50 dollars per barrel of crude oil with 2.2 million barrels per day and the exchange rate was pegged at N290 per dollar.
Government also allocated the sum of N2.6 trillion for recurrent expenditure; N1.8 trillion for capital expenditure; N1.6 trillion for debt servicing and N370 billion for statutory transfers. (NAN)
JNC/FF/YEMI
Edited by Fela Fashoro
Controlled by Yemi Idris-Aduloju