Govt budgets N304b for Niger Delta, pension gets N126b
From John Abba-Ogbodo, Abuja
TO check restiveness and accelerate development in the Niger Delta, the Federal Government has increased the allocation to the area through derivation from the N248 billion provided in the 2004 budget to N304 billion in the 2005 appropriation bill.
The House of Representatives will today commence debate on the general principle of the budget.
Briefing reporters on the details of the 2005 budget estimates presented by President Olusegun Obasanjo, chairmen of the House committees on finance and appropriation, Farouk Lawan and Gabriel Suswan, said N158 billion has been earmarked from the excess crude account to fund the expected deficit in this year's budget.
The chairmen said an inflation target of between 10 and 11 per cent was expected while a six to seven per cent gross domestic product growth level has been projected in the budget.
The target level of reserves is put at $15 billion and the gross oil sales is estimated at N1.696 billion as against the N1.590 billion in the 2004 budget.
In the sectoral allocation, pension has the highest with N126 billion as against the 2004 allocation of N70 billion followed by education with N110 billion while defence got N101 billion.
There is also a provision for borrowing of N70 billion which the chairmen said would be done through treasury bills while sales of property and privatisation proceeds amounting to N15 billion and N4 billion respectively would be used to service the deficit.
Other allocations include Police N85 billion; Power N76 billion; Health N60 billion; Works N76 billion MFCT N44 billion and Water Resources N42 billion. Internal Affairs has an allocation of N39 billion; Foreign Affairs N24 billion; Agriculture N20 billion; State House N58 billion; National Assembly N37 billion; National Security Adviser N15 billion; Science and Technology N10 billion and a group of another big spenders classified as others with the sum of N255 billion
One other feature of the details is the decrease in the revenue target for the Nigeria Customs from N219 billion in 2004 to N190 billion in 2005.
Lawan explained that the reduction was as a result of the ban on importation of a number of items. He also disclosed that debate on the general principle of the budget would commence today but expressed reservation that the exercise might not be completed before Christmas.
Chair of the Committee on Public Affairs, Abike Dabiri, last week told journalists that debate on the budget was being stalled by the executive that had not forwarded the details.
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