By Muhammad Tanko Shittu
Jos
Plateau state governor, Mr. Simon Bako Lalong, yesterday presented a budget of N145.4 billion for the 2018 appropriation before the state Assembly.
The estimates tagged: “Budget of Rescue and Consolidation,” is made up of N75.8 billion recurrent expenditure, representing 52.13 per cent of the budget estimate and over N69.6 billion capital expenditure, representing 48.87 per cent of the total estimate.
According to Lalong, the recurrent revenue in the 2018 budget is estimated at N76.3 billion, consisting of N21.1billion internally generated revenue (IGR) while N36.5 billion is expected from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), as well as N18.8 billion reimbursements from the federal government for the federal roads constructed by the state government, amongst others.
The budget proposal indicated that Ministry of works and transport tops the with N18.8 billion, representing 27.07 per cent, followed by education, with N11.7 billion having 16.86 per cent, while health has N4.3 billion, representing 6.25 per cent and agriculture has N3.6 billion, representing 5.1 per cents, among others.
Lalong said: “May I inform the Hon. House that the budget is in deficit of the sum of N34,3 billion only.
“This represents 23.62 per cent of the budget size. The deficit is to finance the expenditure side of the estimate and will be draw from both internal sources if the need arises during the implementation of the budget,” he added.
The sum of N139.4 billion was passed by the House for the outgoing 2017 fiscal year, while N145.4 billion was presented for the 2018, awaiting the House approval, reflecting an increase of about N6 billion.
