Nigeria: The 2013 budget

         The 2013  budget

Report

President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday unveiled a N4.93 trillion budget to the National Assembly for the 2013 fiscal year. The estimate is 5 percent higher than the N4.84 trillion appropriated for the current (2012) financial year. The 2013 budget is tagged, “Fiscal Consolidation”.
According to the President, the budget is anchored on oil production benchmark of 2.53 million barrel per day. This is just a slight increase over the 2012 oil production benchmark of 2.48 million bpd. The proposed estimate is predicated on $75 per barrel of crude oil.
This is $5 less than what was earlier proposed by the House of Representatives. However, the decision to stick to the benchmark of $75 per barrel is reportedly due to the unpredictability of global oil prices.

The budget also projects a deficit of N1.03 trillion. In addition, the estimate is predicated on a 6.5 percent Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This is the rate at which the economy is expected to grow in 2013. All of this translates into a total federal collectible revenue of N10.84 trillion for next year. Of this amount, the total revenue projection for the Federal Government is N3.89 trillion.
This represents an increase of 9 percent over the 2012 budget. According to the President, the 2013 budget contains a debt management strategy aimed at paying part of the nation’s hefty domestic debt which currently stands at N5.62 trillion.
This, he said, is an innovation in the Federal budget. Previous budgets merely roll over the domestic debt stock. The president points out that his administration will exercise fiscal prudence and limit its borrowing pattern in compliance with the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007. The 2013 budget also makes a provision of N380.02 billion for statutory transfers.
A breakdown of the budget gives N2.41 trillion as recurrent expenditure and N1.54 trillion for capital expenditure. On sectoral allocation, Education got the lion’s share with a vote of N426.53 billion, followed by Defence, N349.9 billion; Police, N319.65 billion and Health, N279.23 billion. Other sectoral allocations include Works N183.5 billion, Agriculture and Rural Development N81.4 billion and Power, N74.2 billion, respectively.
Altogether, the proposed budget is not remarkably different from the 2012 budget. The crucial question is: Will the 2013 budget produce any result different from that of 2012? Perhaps too early to say. But effective implementation of the budget will make a difference. Despite the optimism expressed by the President, public expectation is that full implementation of the budget is key to actualizing the targets contained in it. Promises are empty if they are not met.
Government should look into the factors that led to the poor implementation of the 2012 budget, which resulted in the face-off between the National Assembly and the Presidency and the threats of impeachment of the President by the House of Representatives and address them. From hindsight, government has always treated budgets as mere rituals with little seriousness and sincerity of purpose to ensure that the objectives contained in the budget are achieved.
Government, therefore, should be reminded that Nigerians have waited for too long for a realistic budget that can address their needs and the overall growth of the economy. Indeed, any budget that fails to deliver on its promise is deceptive and worthless.
Public expectation is that the 2013 budget will spare us another agony of failed promises. The National Assembly should not rubber-stamp the budget. We urge the lawmakers to sift through the details of the document. They should also, while debating the budget, see themselves as protecting the lives and needs of Nigerians. They should look beyond the figures. Nigerians expect genuine, non-partisan contributions from them. The general consensus is that the budget as presented by the president, is long on revenue projections but short on details.
It is time we begin to treat the budget as a realistic plan of action that people can see and believe in. There is need to put in place necessary mechanism that will ensure close monitoring and full implementation of the budget. Over all, we advise members of the National Assembly to critically examine the budget before passing it. They should not fail in this national assignment.
Source:The Sun

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