President Muhammadu Buhari on
Wednesday unveiled a federal budget of N8.83 trillion for the 2019 fiscal year.
The figure came in the 2019
Appropriation Bill presented by the president to a joint session of the
National Assembly in Abuja.
The 2019 total budget estimate is
N300 billion lower than the N9.1 billion being implemented for the current
fiscal year.
According to Buhari, N4.04
trillion or 50.31 per cent is earmarked for recurrent expenditure and N2.03
trillion representing 22.98 per cent earmarked for capital projects.
Other estimates are N492.36
billion for statutory transfers; N2.14 trillion for debt servicing and
provision of N120 billion as sinking fund.
He explained that the sinking
fund would be used to “retire maturing bonds to local contractors”.
The 2019 budget proposal is based
on an oil production estimate of 2.3 million barrels per day and an exchange
rate of N305 to a dollar.
Other benchmarks are: real Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of 3.01 per cent and inflation rate of 9.98
per cent.
The total projected revenue,
according to the president, is N6.97 trillion, which is three per cent lower
than the 2018 estimate of N7.17 trillion.
Buhari said the expected income
consisted of oil revenue projected at N3.73 trillion, and non-oil revenue estimated
at N1.39 trillion.
“The estimate from non-oil
revenue consists of N799.52 billion from company income tax; N229.34 billion
from value added tax, and customs duties of N302.5 billion.
“We have reduced our expectations
from independent revenue to N624.58 billion.
“Other revenues expected in 2019
include various recoveries of N203.38 billion; N710 billion as proceeds from
the restructuring of government equity in joint ventures, and other sundry
incomes of N104.1 billion,” he said.
The president explained that the
total N8.83 trillion proposed expenditure for 2019 included grants and donor
funds amounting to N209.92 billion.
Buhari said although the 2019
estimate was lower than the 2018 budget of N9.1 trillion, it was higher than
the N8.6 trillion originally proposed by the executive to the National
Assembly.
The budget deficit is projected
to decrease to N1.86 trillion or 1.3 per cent of the GDP in 2019 from N1.95
trillion projected for 2018.
“This reduction is in line with
our plan to progressively reduce deficit and borrowings over the medium term,”
he said.
On sectoral allocation, the
president said the Ministry of Interior would get N569.07billion, Defence
(N435.62 billion), Education (N462.24 billion) and Health (N315.62 billion).
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