*Budget parameters realizable- Minister
The Federal Government has concluded plans to sell key national assets in a bid to generate sufficient revenue to finance the country’s annual budgets between 2018-2020.
The Director of Budget Office, Ben Akabueze, disclosed this on Monday, at the public hearing organized by the House of Representatives joint committees on the 2018-2020 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP).
According to Akabueze, the proceeds from the sale of key government assets, such as the National Integrated Power Projects (NIPP) plants, national parks, as well as the National Arts Theatre and Tafawa Balewa Square in Lagos are to be deployed as financing items for the 2018 budget .
Other public assets to be sold, he added, are non- core assets from the mines and steel sector, Federal Government- owned buildings and estates.
He said proceeds from the privatization of key government assets were factored into the 2018 budget to finance, especially, the budget deficit of N2.005trillion, much of which would be financed through domestic and foreign borrowing.
According to him, the country is generating too little revenue, hence it is expedient to borrow, adding that the reverse would be the case if actually there were more revenue collectibles.
“We are generating too little revenue, hence we are borrowing. If we generate enough, the borrowing ratio will drop,” he said.
Also speaking at the joint hearing, the Minster of State for National Planning, Hajia Zainab Ahmed, assured lawmakers that all the parameters projected in the 2018 budget by President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration were realizable.
Hajia Ahmed informed members of the House joint committee that the Federal Government expects to generate N6trillion as revenue in 2018 as projected in the budget, representing a 30 per cent increase over the 2017 projections.
This, according to the minister, is based on the key strategies adopted by the relevant ministries to block revenue leakages and effective revenue collection and management.
The minister also argued that the proposed $45 oil benchmark was carefully adopted by the executive to provide the amount needed to fund the budget deficit of N2.5trn, representing a 1.7 per cent increase.
Other parametres, she said, include an oil production estimate of 2.3 million barrels per day, real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of 3.5%, inflation rate of 12.4 per cent and an exchange rate of N350 to one dollar .
Key government officials, who made presentations, included the Executive Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS), Dr Tunde Fowler; and the representative of the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Others are the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Alhaji Mohammed Isa Dutse, who stood in for Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, the minister of finance, deputy comptroller general of Customs in charge of T&T, who also represented the Comptroller General of Customs, Col Hameed Ali.
But the Chairman of the Joint Committee, Hon. Babaginda Aliu, frowned at the absence of five government agencies at the session, which he described as critical to the consideration and passage of the 2018 budget.
He noted that notwithstanding the late submission of the MTEF/ FSP, the committee is committed to streamlining its activities so as to pass the document and ensure the budget is finally passed in record time.
Henry Omunu, Abuja
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