Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi on Thursday presented an Appropriation Bill of N174.9 billion to the state House of Assembly for deliberation and approval for the 2017 fiscal year.
Presenting the budget on the floor of the House at a special session in Lokoja, Mr. Bello said the budget was made up of N58.5 billion (33.47 per cent) Recurrent Expenditure and N116.3 (66.53 per cent) Capital Expenditure.
He said the total budget package for 2017 tagged; “’Budget of New Direction’’’ was N74.8 billion or (74.8 per cent) above the N99.998 billion appropriated for 2016.
The governor said the budget was based on estimated recurrent revenue of N81.666 billion and estimated Capital Receipt of N93:185 making up the N174.851 billion.
The estimated revenue of N81.666 billion according to him consists of N32.181 billion from internal sources; N35.3 billion as the state’s share from the Federation Account; N8.08 billion from Value Added Tax (VAT), N2.2 billion from Exchange Differentials and N3.8 billion from Budget Augmentation.
The estimated capital receipt of N93.185, he explained, comprised N63.185 billion Capital Receipt analysis by economic and N30 billion as aid and grants.
Mr. Bello said the 2017 budget was prepared in line with Domesticated National Chart of Account, Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Muti-Year Budget Framework (MYBF) which outlined key initiatives, assumptions and expected achievements of MDAs.
The governor described the budget as a balanced one as “Our total estimated revenue (Recurrent revenue and capital receipts) and our total estimated expenditure (Recurrent and capital) stand at N174, 851,544,523.’’
Mr. Bello noted that the specific fiscal objective of his administration and the state was effective allocation of scarce resources to identified critical programmes and objectives.
Earlier, Speaker of the House, Umar Imam, said the house would strive through its committees to give the budget accelerated consideration to ensure the dividends of democracy to the people of the state.