Buhari To Present 2017 Nigeria Budget To National Assembly 14 December

TAIWO ADELU

President Muhammadu Buhari will present the Nigeria budget for the 2017 fiscal year on 14 December, 2016.

A budget of  N7.28 trillion is being proposed by the government for the new year.

This represents an increase of ‎about 19.95 per cent over the 2016 Appropriation of N6.07 trillion.

The day of budget presentation was contained in a letter writing to the leadership of the National Assembly seeking permission to present 2017 budget on Wednesday December 14, 2016.

Going by tradition, President Buhari will present the budget of Federal Government of Nigeria to a joint seating of both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

It would be recalled that Nigeria Government has said in a budget call recently made public  that it was ready with N6.5 trillion for Budget 2017. This was contained in a budget call circular issued by the office of the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, to all Ministries, Departments and Agencies.

According to the circular, this was in accordance with the 2017-2019 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper.

It said the aggregate Federal Government retained revenue for the 2017 fiscal year was projected at N4.1 trillion, while the aggregate expenditure level was projected to be N6.9 trillion.

The circular said: “This aggregate expenditure is made up of statutory transfers of N370.7 billion, Debt Service of N1.63 trillion, Recurrent (non-debt) expenditure of N2.56 trillion and Capital expenditure of N1.76 trillion.

“The N1.63 trillion in respect of Debt Service is made up of N1.47 trillion for domestic debt; N159.6 billion for foreign debt and N177.4 billion for sinking fund to retire maturing loans.”

It said the capital expenditure would be guided strictly by the justification and critical nature of such programmes and budgets.

It also said the N1.76 trillion set aside for critical capital expenditure includes N150 billion for Special Intervention Programme, N200 billion for Capital Supplementation and N1.41 trillion for MDAs capital expenditure

“Additionally, the Federal Government intends to incur recurrent expenditure of N350 billion on the Special Intervention Programmes, bringing the total to N500 billion,” it said.