Bayelsa State Governor, Hon. Seriake Dickson on Fridaypresented a N150
billion Appropriation Bill tagged Budget of Transition for the 2016 fiscal
year, as against N250bn passed into law in 2015 to the State House of
Assembly.
The recurrent expenditure as presented to the State House of Assembly for
passage into law, stands at N43bn and capital expenditure, N25.4bn.
In his presentation, the governor said the budget would be committed to
the completion of ongoing projects in the state.
The projected statutory allocation from the Federation Account, according
to the governor, is put at N82.3 billion, capital receipts of N51.2
billion, independent revenue sources of N11 billion, which make up the
expected total revenue.
The recurrent expenditure as presented by the governor, is having the
highest allocation of N43 billion. This would enable the present
administration to keep faith with the payment of workers salaries,
regardless of the sharp drop in revenues occasioned by slide in crude oil
prices.
Other expenditure items include, consolidated revenue fund charges N61.8
million, overhead of N20.2 billion, while capital expenditure was put at
N25.4 billion.
Governor Dickson, who described the provision for capital expenditure for
the current fiscal year as the least he has ever presented throughout his
first term, however promised to review the allocation in the event of any
positive change in the revenues accruing to the state.
In his sectoral breakdown, On sectoral allocations, the Ministry of Works
and Infrastructure got the highest allocation of N5.2 billion, education
N4 billion, Health N2 billion, Sports N1 billion, Community development
N1.7 billion and Agriculture and natural resources N1.3 billion.
The Ministry of Tourism Development got N1.1 billion, Transport N1.1
billion, Housing and Urban Development N1.4 billion part of which the
Governor said, would be utilized to build low income residential houses,
in partnership with the private sector as land has already been acquired
in different parts of the state for that purpose.
Assessing the performance of the 2015 budget of N250 billion comprising an
anticipated statutory allocation of N182 billion, capital receipts of N48
billion, Value Added Tax N8.6 billion, Governor Dickson said, what the
government received was a far cry from what was projected.
According to him, actual statutory allocation for the 9 months ending at
September was N146.5 billion, which he noted was 47% lower than what was
budgeted for, VAT N5.3 billion, independent revenue sources N6.2 billion
while aids and grants amounted to N1.2 billion