Lagos’ N812. 99bn Golden Jubilee Budget Gets Assembly’s Approval

• Lagos’ N812. 99bn Golden Jubilee Budget Gets Assembly’s Approval

The Lagos State House of Assembly yesterday passed the 2017 budget proposal of N812. 99 billion presented by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode into law.

The House passed the sum of N305, 28 billion as total Recurrent Expenditure and N507.82 billion as the total Capital Expenditure for the Year that will end on December 31, 2017.

Ambode had on November 29, last year presented an Appropriation Bill of N812.99 billion to the lawmakers for approval.

The House after receiving the budget directed all its standing committees to invite all Ministries, Departments and Agencies to defend their allocations. The passage followed the House’s adoption of the report by its Committee on Budget and Economic Planning presented by the Chairman, Mr. Rotimi Olowo.

Olowo said the state was able to achieve 71 percent budget performance in spite of the economic recession in the country.

The lawmaker also said that the state would embark on progressive taxation which would bring more people into the tax net and make the rich pay more.

As part of the recommendations of the committee, the lawmakers said there was a need to comply with the Appropriation (Re-ordering) Law, 2016 to release funds to relevant MDAs. The lawmakers added that there was a need for the Ministry of Economic Planning and budget to carry out a budget review of 2015-2017 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) of MDAs before allocating envelopes for Y2018 proposed budget estimate.

According to the committee chairman, ”This would guide against duplication of expenditures (Capital and Recurrent) by MDAs.”

The House approved a sum of N650 million for education, N350 million for Agriculture, N360 million for LASIEC, while the Capital Expenditure of LASIEC was increased from N2.5 billion to N3 billion to cater for election matters.

Meanwhile, overhead for Security/Emergency Interventions was reduced from N500 million to N400 million and N1 billion was allocated to capital expenditure for the ministry of Special Duties and Inter governmental Relations.

The Assembly approved a sum of N20.43 billion for LAMATA, N2 billion for Ferry Services, N4 billion for maintenance/Repair of roads (Recurrent) while the capital vote head for Road Maintenance rose from N790.10 million to N1.79 billion. Meanwhile, overhead cost of Lagos State House of Assembly Service Commission was increased from N210 million to N252 million while the capital expenditure. The House also approved N10 billion for the State Infrastructure Intervention Fund, while it approved N159.55 million for state Electricity Board.

The Speaker of the House, Mr. Mudashiru Obasa, after taking a voice vote on each sectoral allocation of the Appropriation Bills and approval given to each, the House passed the budget. Ambode had assured that the budget will be judiciously implemented to continue the massive infrastructural renewal and upgrading of Lagos into one of the foremost tourism and investment destinations in Africa.

The governor, who christened the budget as “The Golden Jubilee Budget” as it coincides with the State’s 50th Anniversary, said it would focus on physical infrastructure, while social sectors especially health, education, youth and social development will be given adequate attention.

On the revenue expected from federal allocation, the Governor said a conservative approach will be adopted owing to the falling oil prices, which according to him, was about $41.98 per barrel at the time of finalising the budget.

He however expressed optimism that the state’s federal allocation will increase through the 13 percent derivation from Oil & Gas in 2017.