Senators were, yesterday, sharply divided along party lines on the feasibility of the 2016 Budget on many counts, especially the oil price benchmark of $38 per barrel as they began debate on the Appropriation Bill presented to them by President Muhammadu Buhari.
While senators elected on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, hailed the proposal and said it could put the country on the path of socio-economic recovery and growth, their Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, colleagues picked holes in the budget, describing it as far from the envisaged change mantra of the government.
Vanguard reported that, speaking at the plenary, some APC senators argued that the budget was geared towards fighting corruption and diversification of the economy. But others, especially of the PDP described the budget as dead on arrival and should be returned to the President for amendment as they called for a reduction of the budget by 30 per cent and a downward review of the oil benchmark.
President Buhari had on December 22, 2015 presented a total budget of N6.08 trillion for 2016 to a joint session of the National Assembly. He disclosed that 30 per cent of Nigeria’s annual budget will be committed to capital expenditure and moved Capital Expenditure from N557 billion in 2015 to N1.8 trillion in the 2016 budget. He added that having reviewed the trends in the global oil industry, the government decided to set a benchmark price of $38 per barrel and a production estimate of 2.2 million barrels per day for 2016, with plans to focus on non-oil revenues by broadening the nation’s tax base and improving the effectiveness of revenue collecting agencies.
In the budget, President Buhari, who projected a revenue target of N3.86 trillion for 2016, and recurrent expenditure of N2.43 trillion, said that the Federal Government also proposed to spend the sum of N1.66 trillion for foreign and domestic debt servicing while projecting to actualize the sum of N1.4 trillion as expected non-oil revenue. To fund the budget, government projected foreign and domestic borrowing of N900 billion and N986 billion respectively.
Posted by Janice Johnson
