The Nation Newspaper

Tag: 2016 Budget

  • Adeosun explains Nigeria’s borrowing plans to fund capital projects

    Adeosun explains Nigeria’s borrowing plans to fund capital projects

    The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, Monday revealed government’s strategy for foreign loans that will be used to fund the 2016 budget.

    According to a statement from the ministry issued by the Special Adviser to the Minister on Media Matters, Mr. Festus Akanbi, Mrs Adeosun disclosed that one of the options the federal government will explore will be to get credit from multi-lateral agencies like the World Bank and African Development Bank (AfDB).

    “These Multilateral agencies provide loans on concessional terms, which include low interest, moratorium before repayment and long tenor.”

    “The second funding option being explored includes Export Credit Agencies such as China Exim Bank. These funds are also concessional and are tied to specific capital projects,” the statement said.

    The balance of foreign borrowing required will be raised in the Eurobond market at commercial rates of interest.

    The Minister explained that by blending these different sources of funding, the overall cost of funds will be maintained at the lowest possible level, stating that “as far as possible, our foreign borrowing will be tied to specific capital projects. A number of these projects are revenue generating which will be used to fund the loan repayments.”

    These capital projects include power, transport, road; housing etc. These capital projects include power, transport, road, housing etc.

    The strategy of pursuing increased foreign borrowing is designed to ensure that the Federal Government does not “crowd out” the private sector in the domestic market.

    It will be recalled that the Federal Government presented to the National Assembly a budget of N6.08 trillion with a N2.2 trillion deficit and a N1.8 trillion borrowing requirement.

  • 2016 Budget scales second reading in Senate

    2016 Budget scales second reading in Senate

    The controversial 2016 Appropriation Bill on Wednesday scaled second reading in the Senate as Senators concluded debate on the general principles of the bill.

    The Bill was thereafter committed to the Committee on Appropriation to coordinate budget defence by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

    Senate President, Bukola Saraki, in his concluding remarks warned senators against financial inducement in the course of budget defence by MDAs.

    He said any lawmaker involved in unwholesome conduct in the course of budget defence would not be spared.

    The Senate President said the Senate would not tolerate conducts capable of undermining the integrity of the Chamber.

    On the general principles of the budget, Saraki said the proposal was a major departure from past budgets, particularly with regard to withdrawing focus on oil as major revenue source for funding the budget.

    He said, “This to me and to all of us is the most important area of this budget in the sense that it will be a great foundation not only for today but for the future if this can be achieved.

    “Also, with the pegging of capital expenditure at 30 per cent, a number of comments were made about the level of borrowing, but I think what matters is what the money is used for.

    “On the percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), we are still within the limits and parameters, but what is important is to ensure that the money is judiciously used for what it is meant for.”

    Saraki noted the National Assembly would take a critical look at the budgetary allocation to the agricultural and solid mineral sectors because they were potential revenue earners if effectively explored.

     

  • These senators, again!

    These senators, again!

    Rather than kill Nigerians with tax that may end up being embezzled again, senators should think outside of the box to make up for revenue shortfall

    I felt so sad when on Friday I saw the headline in one of the dailies: “2016 Budget: Senators seek heavy taxation of Nigerians”. The senators’ argument is that since the government’s revenue projection on the2016 budget is being threatened by plummeting crude oil prices, it is better to augment the shortfall with taxation instead of borrowing as proposed by the Federal Government. Crude prices have dropped from the $38 per barrel adopted in the budget to about $27. We do not know if this would further plummet. So, there is sense in looking for a way to augment the shortfall. But, is taxation the answer? No, especially given the reasons by Senator Olusola Adeyeye, the chief whip, who led the debate on the matter.

    Senator Adeyeye wants us to return to the days of old when every adult was taxed. He says we should bring ingenuity to this. I do not know what that means because, even in those days, many people had rough encounters with the tax collectors. Things are harder now. How many adults have regular incomes that can be taxed now? There are no more farmers in the farms as ‘King’ Sunny Ade sang; as the child of the farmer of old has brought his father to the city to have a taste of the allures of city life.

    Senator Adeyeye added that: “Text messages cost N3.81 a page; if we add just N1 to a page of text message and we say that money belongs to government, we will make billions”. Apparently Senator Adeyeye and his colleagues must think Nigerians have short memory to have made such suggestion. The truth of the matter is that successive governments have made so much money off the people that we cannot even keep track off, hence some unscrupulous persons have taken advantage of this to enrich themselves, illegally. Even with specific reference to the telecoms sector, each of the initial operators paid money for their licences which the government promised would be reinvested into the sector. Was that promise fulfilled?

    The same goes for toll gates on our roads which the senator wants us to bring back. He said “we must install tolls on roads; but that is not enough: across the world when you park at any airport, you pay per hour; we must do what the rest of the world does”. Good talk. But which of these roads have we not travelled before? Once upon a time we had toll gates on some of our major highways but then, President Olusegun Obasanjo woke up one day to scrap them, citing corruption as reason why they had to go, instead of dealing with the problem. I admire Senator Adeyeye’s suggestion that we should “do what the rest of the world does”. Another good talk; but can we? Where else in the world that the senators are talking about that people would have money to buy arms to fight insurgency and that money would be shared and there would not be outrage? In Nigeria, some people are romanticising rule of law in a matter as grievous as this; a thing many elite thieves in this country had exploited to delay, if not permanently escape justice in the past. The senators should lead the way in making Nigeria do what civilised countries do.

    Perhaps the most laughable, even if annoying of the senators’ suggestions is that worker’s allowances must be taxed. “We must begin to tax allowances”, Adeyeye said, adding once again, for effect and rather to boot, that “Nigeria is the only country that shelters the bulk of the earnings of its workers and call them allowances”. And then asked, rather rhetorically: “You don’t want your allowances taxed?” a question he also answered himself, rather arrogantly and, if I may add, annoyingly: “They will be taxed because they MUST be taxed”. I wonder who made Senator Adeyeye judge over his own cause. This is the same National Assembly that was ignored by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) on tariff increase and did nothing, now boasting that workers’ allowances “must” be taxed.

    Whatever gave them the impression that Nigerians can be slapped left, right and centre without expecting a reply. How much tax do the senators and National Assembly members themselves pay? I am not talking of what is in their so-called pay slips which a former House of Representatives speaker once displayed with glee when he visited this newspaper a few years ago; but when we quickly reminded him that we were not talking about his official earnings but the innumerable allowances not reflected in the pay slip, the gap-toothed speaker simply smiled and that marked the end of the story.  If the senators must be told, elected people have a responsibility to protect the interest of the electorate. Where they cannot, they should leave the people as they met them rather than add more to their yokes. Honestly, the senators have stirred the hornet’s nest and I wonder what the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) is waiting for.

    Instead of first ensuring that we get what has been stolen from our very important thieves (VITs), we are talking as if we simply woke up overnight to realise that the country is broke and that the average Nigerian is the cause and should therefore cough up more money for the thieves to share again. If we must tell ourselves some home truths, the senators were part of the people that led this country to where it is today; not the hapless Nigerians that they want to tax out of existence. Some of them have always been recycled and have been senators since God-knows-when; so, such people cannot exonerate themselves from some of the problems over which they are seeking to make Nigerians the beasts of burden. If the Senate, as the upper legislative chamber had played its role as it should, some of the revelations we are having today about the arms fund scandal, which, for me is just a preamble of things to come, would have been detected by the law makers and checked before they became the festering sore that they have  become.

    Anyway, may be the senators have a point in asking Nigerians to bear the shortfall in the budget. The people seemed to have accepted their fate with equanimity. Since they won the gold medal of being the ‘happiest people on earth’ a few years back, they have remained their perpetual happy selves, unperturbed by anything. Nothing shocks them again. Lai Mohammed, information minister, was so worried last week that everybody has been going about his or her duty in the country as if nothing happened despite his disclosure that only about 55 Nigerians stole N1.4trillion in eight years. When you have such people to govern, the temptation is to continue pounding them until they show physical resistance. But this is dangerous.

    Our legislators should realise that when a goat is pushed to the wall, it fights back. The lawmakers should remember that taxation is one of the ways to easily make people angry, especially when it becomes excessive. They should remember the many protests that it had caused in the past, as in the case of the Abeokuta women’s protest which culminated in the abdication of the Alake on January 3, 1949. “As a matter of fact, not a few persons have argued that Nigerians are complacent even in the midst of massive looting of the treasury because the money being stolen is OUR money. They argue that when they steal MY money, Nigerians would be roused from their complacency.

    The scripture enjoins us to rend our hearts and not our garments; it is our lawmakers that ought to shed weight.  Their case is like the pastor who is getting fatter and yet advising his church members on the need to go lean. The senators are the ones who work on part time for four years and yet collect severance package that people at their level in the civil service look forward to in their entire life in service.  I do not know any other country where casual workers get so handsomely rewarded.

    These senators must think outside of the box and use their good offices to get money for the country, instead of insulting our sensibilities. Our problem is corruption and not inadequate taxation. As a matter of fact, if there is problem with taxation, it has to do more with the rich who know how to evade taxes. I would have loved to see our senators come up with legislation/s that would protect the average Nigerian from people who cannot live without stealing oxygen from the public till.

    They have to be careful though not to take Nigerians for granted beyond their coping capacity. Once that coping capacity breaks down, anything can happen. The senators should not allow Nigerians to see the upper chamber as a symbol of legislative tyranny and insensitivity.

  • 2016 budget: Senate justifies N115b vote

    2016 budget: Senate justifies N115b vote

    The Senate Thursday justified the allocation of N115 billion for the National Assembly in the 2016 budget.

    This is coming as the upper chamber asked the government to explore all tax avenues to fund the N6.08 trillion budget.

    Making his contribution in continuation of the debate of the general principle of the 2016 Appropriation Bill, Senate Chief Whip, Senator Olusola Adeyeye, said N115 allocation to the National Assembly represents only 1.8% of the total budget figure of N6.08 trillion.

    He said that some of those who criticised the allocation spoke as if the amount was provided for Senators and members of the House of Representatives alone to share.

    The Osun Central lawmaker said that the provision was also made to pay the salaries and allowances of those in the National Assembly bureaucracy and agencies.

    He said, “I want to point out that I have looked at the budget and in the light of all the opprobrium that has been heaped on the National Assembly in the press, I want to report that this year’s budget contains a total request of N115 billion for the National Assembly. This represents only 1.8 per cent of the N6.08 trillion.”

    On how to fund the budget, he said that 54 per cent of the $3.8 trillion US budget is sourced from tax.

    He said, “If we are going to move this country forward, we must go back to what we did in the days of Obafemi Awolowo, Ahmadu Bello and Nnamdi Azikiwe.

    “Nobody in my village will go to his farm until he can produce his tax receipt; we need ingenuity to bring this to pass.”

    He said that time has come to tax things like cigarette, alcohol including taxing heavily those who beat their wives.

    “Text messages cost N3.81 a page; if we add just N1 to a page of text message and we say that the money belongs to government we will make billions.

    “We must install toll roads but that is not enough: across the world, when you park at any airport you pay per hour; we must do what the rest of the world does.

    “We must begin to tax allowances. Nigeria is the only country that shelters the bulk of the earnings of its workers and calls them allowances,”

    Immediately he suggested that allowances should be taxed, Senator began to murmur and showed other signs of disapproval.

    Adeyey asked, “You don’t want your allowances taxed? They will be taxed.”

    He insisted that ‘if we are going to save this country, we must reduce the cost of government.”

    He noted that “there are too many parastatals and when you look at these parastatals many of them have failed in their missions, we continue to protect them and give them money, it’s time for them to go.”

    The Deputy Minority Whip, Senator Biodun Olujimi in her contribution noted that the budget is for all Nigerians.

    She said that whatever criticism directed at the document is meant to strengthen the system and ensure that a better Nigeria is born.

    Olujimi said that though she is not a financial expert, expenditure and deficit are the major problems of the budget.

    She said, “Right now we have a deficit of $11 on every barrel of oil that we sell and in the budget we have a deficit of N2.2 trillion that is $11 deficit in 2.5- 2.6 trillion, that’s not a serious problem, the problem is if we need to borrow to manage this 2.6 trillion it means we will be borrowing N500 million everyday of this year.

    “Every day of this year this government will look for 500 million to borrow and that has not been fixed.

    “To crown it all, there is nothing in this budget that suggests repayment for this; it is only expenditure nothing has been set aside to ensure that we pay back our loans.

    “A country that borrows and does not plan to pay back has not done enough work at all.   If we borrow 500 million naira a day and cannot pay it in one year it rolls over to the next year and in four years you find that we are in deficit of almost N6 trillion.

    “There are too many policy changes in the this system in the last six months, the policy somersaults in the foreign exchange regime in such that it will lead us back to our status of round tripping where our people were doing anything to make ends meet and our currency went to zero. We must not drive our people down to such a stage that would not be good for the nation.”

    Olujimi continued, “In the budget what has been used is not zero budgeting, you find that it is still the envelope system. The envelope system provides funds and they are broadly explained, the people who will operate it will wait for the projects to come and that’s what we have found in this budget, there is nothing about being zero based or being protected by the various ministries.

    “The capital expenditure has increased and the inflow has decreased what it means is that this budget has a serious deficiency.

    “This budget is not a budget of change yet, I think they are still looking for how to bring in the required change.

    “There is need for retrospection, there is need for us to have a solid economic team and have economists who have the interest of Nigeria at heart so that they can look again at this budget and see where we can cushion the effects of all this for our people.”

     

     

  • Knocks, applaud as Senate debate 2016 budget

    Knocks, applaud as Senate debate 2016 budget

    The Senate Wednesday commenced the debate of the general principles of the 2016 budget on a high note.

    While some Senators commended the spirit and content of the budget, others described the fiscal document as unimplementable and asked that it should be reworked.

    The debate followed sharp party lines with most All Progressives Party (APC) Senators who spoke insisting that the budget is an honest move to fix the economy of the country while their Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) counterparts expressed skepticism about the workability of the fiscal policy.

    Some of the lawmakers cautioned the government to be mindful of excess borrowing to finance the budget as the measure might signal a wrong impression of economic affluence when the economy is actually undergoing recession.

    At a stage during the debate, there was shouting match on the floor of the Senate but the Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, managed the situation to avoid out right rancor.

    Senate Leader, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume, led the debate by outlining the objective assumptions of the budget.

    Ndume noted that the budget entitled “budget of change” is unique in so many ways.

    The preparation of the budget, he said, was based on Zero Based Budgeting (ZBB) system which required all expenses on projects and programmes to be fully justified by MDAs.

    The Senate Leader who said that the budget is aimed at promoting inclusive growth including the poor and vulnerable noted that it would however be challenged by the decline in oil prices and slowdown in the global economy.

    Ndume said that the budget was designed to ensure that the country’s economy survived by stimulating economic activities, making it more competitive by focusing on infrastructural development as well as to create a number of jobs.

    He added that budget focuses on broadening the tax base and improving the effectiveness of revenue collection as well as diversifying the economy and moving it away from dependence on oil.

    He said that the 2016 budget of N6.08 trillion is a “framework that will consolidate and add impetus to the change agenda of this administration and will promote economic growth, job creation, poverty reduction and service delivery to all Nigerians.

    “Let me start by saying that indeed we have to fund part of this budget by borrowing because in the previous administration a huge chunk of our common patrimony our resources have been stolen.”

    Senator Ahmed Lawan (Yobe North) in his contribution noted that the challenge of the economy is not the current price of oil in the world market.

    Lawan said that the challenge of the economy “is and has always been corruption, corruption. 55 privileged Nigerians in the last 16 years stole 1.34 trillion.”

    He added, “This is the 17th budget I am debating in the National Assembly and with the exception of 2005 Appropriation, there was never an implementation of more than 40%. Nigerians was shortchanged for 16 years.

    “The proposal before us is the first in the last 17 years that an allocation of 30% of the appropriation is given for capital expenditure and for the first time in a genuine, sincere, honest and transparent manner the executive arm of government has deem it necessary to give ordinary Nigerians something, some succour, some hope and genuine one for that matter that we have N500 billion allocated to the school feeding and social and the safety nets generally.

    “Mr. President 2015 budget when we debated it here the proposal was N500 billion for the entire capital budget and we said it and it came to pass that they were not going to implement even half of that.

    “In fact at that time I mentioned that Nigerians with over 179.9 million will have only about N200 billion in a budget of 4.9trillion.

    “Today, we have a budget that provides 30% in the first instance and so many other social safety nets that will be for disadvantage Nigerians, Nigerians that are most vulnerable that have little or no hope. This is again the first budget presented to the assembly in the last 17 years in which revenue from oil is not predominant and is not overwhelming.”

    Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe (Abia South) faulted the budget and urged the government to withdraw it so as to go back to the drawing board.

    He said, “I am going to quote copiously from the Senate Leader. He said this budget is unique and titled `Budget of Change’.

    “This budget is indeed unique, the first budget that has ever been sent out to the public of Nigeria and after the budget presentation, the finance minister has never come to explain the details of the budget as it is normally done.

    “It is a budget of change, I agree but it is a change in the wrong direction. I say it is a change in the wrong direction because it says that it is based on zero budgeting requiring all expenses to be fully justified.

    “A budget that increases spending up to 30% based solely on borrowing, in what way is it justified? That is the question we want to ask the people who brought this budget of change.

    “We ask a question: this budget has moved the 2015 budget from N4.45 trillion to N6.08 trillion and we felt that moving it on zero based budgeting should actually show how it is done.

    “Of course we get nothing; all we get is that we are going to borrow.

    “A budget that moves domestic spending within Aso Villa from N580 million to N1.7 billion cannot be a budget of change.

    “We were told that in the revised budget there was an adjustment due to error, we agree but what has happened is that the money up to N7 billion were moved from buying vehicles to being spread in offices.

    “It also increases the spending that is due to renovations within the Villa; they are going to renovate the Villa with N3.9 billion.

    “What else do you want to renovate there that Nigerians will see in the Year 2016.

    “We know what is going on in the global economy; this budget is predicated on an oil benchmark of $38 per barrel and I can now say that with oil being $28 today, this budget is dead on arrival.

    “The job of the opposition is to help the government to get its priorities right so I want to please urge this government to withdraw this budget and go back to the drawing board.”

    Chairman, Senate Committee on Finance, Senator John Owan Enoh, (Cross River Central) took a critical view of the budget insisting that the budget has quite some fine points no doubt.

    Enoh said that the debate should dwell on some of the matters that will concern everyone.

    He said, “The budget seeks to stimulate the economy for example through economic diversification, import substitution, export expansion and promotion. This is good.

    “There’s already an injection of some kind of new leadership in various revenue generating agencies. There is also the fine point about zero budgeting, which attempts to optimise the impact of public expenditure in aligning resources to government programmes.

    “The Ministry of Finance has been quite foremost in efficiency management. It has also indicated the fact that the implementation of Integrated Personnel Information System is going to be extended to all MDAs.

    “In spite of how many years we have implemented IPIS, it’s sad to say that less than 50 percent of MDAs have been covered. And the innovation by the Ministry of Finance is that they are going to use the BVN to extend IPIS.

    “Having gone through the real details of the budget, but I think that the expenditure item for IPIS needs to be under control if the BVN is going to be used for that purpose.

    “There is also the emphasis on having to ensure microeconomic stability by attempting to make sure that the real GDP growth rate for 2016 is about 4.37 percent.

    “I think that for a country that the third quarter of 2015, the real GDP growth rate was less than 3 percent, it’s perhaps too optimistic that we can achieve that kind of growth rate, especially given the international situation with the economy the world over.

    “Now going into the real statistics, this budget is based on assumptions. There are a few assumptions that we must look at for.

    “For the first time in about 17 years, the National Assembly may now have to take a decision about the downward review of the oil price benchmark.

    “I’m not too sure when this budget is going to be passed but I think we need to be careful and look at what the market price of oil is going to be at the time that this budget is going to be passed.

    “The second element has to do with the Exchange Rate figure, which this budget has pegged at N197.

    “If you compare that to the parallel market in spite of the implication that it may have in the purchasing power of the Naira, we need to be a little bit more realistic and practical in terms of what the real Exchange Rate should be.”

    Enoh expressed concern that the budget has a deficit figure higher than the capital, saying:

    “What it means is that some component of what we are going to borrow, we are going to use for recurrent items and we need to be very careful on this basis.

    “I think that although the deficit to GDP is about 2.16 percent, which is about 14 percent of our GDP, and we think that in terms of international comparison, we are still doing well.

    “But we need to also remember that when the IMF chief executive came to Nigeria, she was quite graphic in what she demonstrated; that a situation in Nigeria in which for every one Naira, about 37kobo is devoted to servicing debt. We need to be a little bit more careful about it.

    “That means there’s pressure on what we earn in terms of what we use to service our debt.

    “When you talk about other expenditure items, I believe there is also too much optimism. We are talking about the fact that we expect to raise about 1.45trillion non-oil proceeds. If you look at what we did and how we performed in 2015, you find out that the difference is so huge. No matter how much we want to spend capital expenditure, if we don’t realise the revenues that are being projected here, it comes to nothing. And we also need to look at the absorptive capacities of the MDAs.”

    He noted that “the budget contains some kind of challenge to NNPC to come up with new funding models for joint venture cash calls. Joint venture cash calls for 2016 budget is about N1.09trillion. If such funding models are discovered, what it means is that as much money as that is going to be available for more expenditure.

    “If you look at the figures for capital expenditure, there is a 30% increase no doubt, there’s 233% year on year growth in terms of our capital. But if you look at the recurrent, it’s just an improvement of about 9 percent.

    “I think that what we have succeeded in doing in this budget is to add up the figures without doing much in efficiency management.

    “The hope is that as we go further, the 2017 and future budgets will do much better than what this budget tends to indicate.

    “Overall, if you are looking at what this budget intends to achieve in terms of economic diversification, we need to be very guided and mindful of what we think is going to come in terms of revenue because without realising the revenue that is being projected, there is nothing much that this government can do in terms of additional capital expenditure that it intends to achieve.”

    Senator Barau Jibrin (Kano North), said there was no doubt that the budget would engender massive spending on critical infrastructure which would stimulate the economy.

    Jibrin noted that it was equally commendable the budget went a long way to address the issue of the social sector especially education and health.

    He said that the challenge remained falling oiling price.

    He said, “Today oil is about $28pb. We need to take a second look at the situation and rearrange the budget in line with oil price reality. Ether we do it or we give it to the Executive to do it.”

    Also speaking, Senator Babajide Omoworare, described the budget as beautiful.

    The Osun East lawmaker lamented that the country is where it is today because “we did not make hay while the sun is shining, we did not diversify our economy.”

    Omoworare said that the country had an era there was so much corruption and impunity asking “how come for 16 years we did not fix our refineries.”

    He said that the economy cannot grow “when we don’t export anything but imports everything even tooth pick.”

    He insisted that the country should take steps to diversify and fix critical sectors including the education sector.

    Senator Gbenga Ashafa in his contribution said that he thought that with the visit of the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, the debate of the budget would be sober and aimed at how to move the economy forward.

    The Lagos East Senator urged his colleagues to see the budget as really a budget of change.

    He asked the Senate to assist President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure that the spirit and content of the budget was realized.

    He also sought to know how the 500,000 teachers to be recruited will be paid whether the payment would involve state governments already finding it difficult to pay salaries.

    Senator Adeola Solomon Olamilekan ( Lagos West) said that the budget is futuristic and spelt out economic indexes that will support its implementation.

    Olamilekan noted that for the first time the country has a budget that it’s realization is not really based on oil benchmark.

    He said that the implementation should be painstakingly followed in the interest of the country.

    Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, said that the challenge is that over the years, the country saw prosperity but now grappling with downward trend.

    He said, “I am not an economist but I know that if my income is N100,000 and suddenly I start earning N30,000 and I tell my children that we will now be spending N120,000, they will start wondering where I will get the money.

    “The problem we have is that over the years we have seen prosperity and we have adjusted to it and now we are seeing a downward trend in our revenue, we don’t seem to be addressing this issue.

    “We have always increased the budget of this country from between 10 and 20 per cent.

    “I just want to appeal that for the first time we should be able to reduce the budget by the same 20 to 30 per cent.

    “That is in order for us to be realistic otherwise it will not be implementable.

    “I am aware that during the great recession in America they had to inflate the economy by doing more projects. We are in recession whether we like it or not.

    “They did not go to borrow money, people had to make sacrifices so I appeal that instead of financing in deficit through borrowing and mortgaging the future, we need to look inwards and raise the money.

    “I believe that as we look at the spending side, we have to look at the revenue side; we have not been creative enough to raise money to run this country.

    “In many countries, they have the communication tax law which ensures that everybody that makes a call or sends a message pays tax to government.

    “But in Nigerian, from bus stops to schools to hospitals to the markets, Nigerians are on the phone every minute of the day and nobody is paying tax on it.

    “If we pay tax on it we do not need to go and get any loan from anywhere, we will have enough money to finance this budget.

    “In the banks we have transactions like withdrawal and payment of money in excess of the threshold, you pay some money.

    “I discovered that the money belongs to the bank, it should be for the government.

    “I do not believe we should ban any good from coming into this country, we should rather increase the tariff by 300 per cent so that government can make money.

    “We need to begin to reduce the cost of running government so that we can be able to afford the government which we deserve.

    “I also believe that looking at the budget; we need to concentrate more on ongoing projects rather than starting new projects.

    “If you look at some sectors, they have about N5 billion for designs alone, these designs means new projects. We need to concentrate on the important existing projects.

    “My consolation is that this parliament has the final say on this budget so I will like to appeal to my colleagues to look at this budget critically, I will be really worried if we are able to pass the budget the way it is.”

    On allocation for roads he said, “I am also worried about the spread, the equity in some of the figures. I hope our colleagues will do the right thing.

    “Look at the Kano-Maiduguri Expressway what you have is N10 billion, the Enugu-Port Harcourt N10 billion, Enugu- Onitsha N3 billion but Lagos – Ibadan has N55 billion.

    “I think that our committee needs to look at it. I do not have any problem with that road but I think there should be equity in the distribution of the figures.

    “It may never be enough but we need know that a man who is not justly treated can never be interested in peace. So I think if we want peace in this country we have to be fair to all concerned.

    “This country belongs to all of us, we have to look at the key sectors that can create jobs in this country, we have to focus on diversifying our economy.”

    Senator Suleiman Adokwe (Nasarawa South) in his contribution said, “I recall with a lot of sense of responsibility that when I served in the Committee for Downstream Petroleum, nobody could ever know how much barrels of oil were exported in this country, nobody could establish the true collection of the Federal Inland Revenue Service and so many other sources of revenue.

    “As we speak today 2015 total other sources of revenue from oil fell by nearly 40 percent, which means that the real business that this government has now is to establish the true level of our revenue before going to borrow.

    “Because if you begin by borrowing so heavily, you will give a false sense of economic well-being and people will continue with business as usual.

    “It is not a very sound economic policy to begin to borrow almost 50% of what you need to fund the budget.

    “What normally other jurisdictions do is to debate between whether to tax or not to tax so that we generate employment depending on the way you look at it.

    “Industrialists prefer tax holidays so that they can use the profit to employ more, while welfarists believe that if you tax more, you will pay more people and more people will go to work.

    “And more production will be achieved. But we are not doing any of these two, we are simply going to borrow and give more.

    “The worse aspect of it is that you are borrowing to do what? If you just borrow to provide welfare, it does not provide economic growth in any way; people will just eat and go to sleep.

    “But if you are borrowing to invest in productive resources that will generate more income, then you know that you are borrowing for a good purpose.

    “This matter of borrowing to fund the budget must be looked at very critically; otherwise we will be digging more into economic problems than we bargained for.”

    Senator Peter Nwaoboshi said that certain pages of the budget were missing wondering “what they want to put in the missing pages.”

    Nwaoboshi also questioned the reduction of the budget for the Presidential Amnesty Programme from over N40 billion in the 2015 budget to N20 billion in the 2016 budget.

    He wondered why N35 billion would be provided for exploration of oil in the Chad basin while N20 billion would be earmarked to keep the peace in the Niger Delta area.

    He also said that the N500 billion earmarked for social services was not in the budget.

     

  • 2016 Budget: Row in House over Buhari’s letter

    2016 Budget: Row in House over Buhari’s letter

    The letter from President Muhammadu Buhari to the House of Representatives withdrawing the faulty details of the 2016 budget caused a furore in the Green Chamber Tuesday.

    No sooner had the Speaker of the House, Hon. Yakubu Dogara read the letter from the president than the Minority Leader of the House, Hon. Leo Ogor opposed the content of the letter from the President

    While quoting Section 80(4) of the constitution and Order 91 of the House, he said the constitution said the budget must be submitted in a timely fashion and that the House Rule (84) permits Chairmen of committees to amend the budget in line with the needs and interests of Nigerians.

    Ogor further argued that there is therefore no need for the president to write a letter for the amendment of the appropriation bill.

    Quoting Rule 84 of the House, Ogor said: “Any committee to which the budget is commuted shall have the power to amend.

    “The issue of amendment is the responsibility of committees, not a situation where an amendment is being proposed with all the attendance crisis.

    “To avoid unnecessary complexity we should look at it at committee level and the chairmen of committees should do the amendment, Instead of having two documents.”

    But the Speaker corrected Ogor saying the President is asking for a “correction” not “amendment” and that only the president has the right to do such.

    “Communications from the President are not to be debated. You’re talking of amendment; there is nowhere in the letter that the president talked of amendment. The president talked of correction.

    “What we’re saying is that there’s a difference between amendment and correction. If the president has said that, which I know he is the only person that can correct, we as a responsible parliament will work on the corrected version.

    “The rule 84 referred to is because it’s a bill. It falls within our purview to make laws, to make amendments but does not relate to corrections.”

    Dogara’s response caused a roar of applause from members as it effectively knocked out Ogor’s argument.

    However, another member, Linus Okorie said the letter of the President should be discarded as the Speaker did to follow the House Rule in the presentation.

    According to him, Dogara should have done the prayers, approved the votes and proceedings, and then read the letter from the president, instead of taking bills before the letter of the President.

    Okorie said it was evident that the Speaker refused to follow the rules of the House, hence the letter of the President should be “discarded.”

    But Dogara urged Okorie to take another look at the order he cited.

    “Look at the opening, it states: “Unless the House otherwise directs.”

    He was given another round of applause.

  • Senate adopts 2016 revised budget

    Senate adopts 2016 revised budget

      Facebook  Google+  LinkedIn

    The Senate on Tuesday adopted the revised version of the 2016 budget estimates.

    The adoption of the corrected version of the budget followed a letter by President Muhammadu Buhari to the Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, on the revised budget proposals.

    Saraki read the Presidential letter in plenary on Tuesday.

    The letter personally signed by Buhari was dated January 15, 2016 and entitled: “2016 budget proposals.”

    President Buhari asked the Senate to work with the corrected version of the budget estimates

    Some Senators, however, spotted a fundamental error on the date of presentation of the Appropriation Bill quoted in the Presidential memo.

    The Senators said the memo stated that the budget was presented to a joint sitting of the National Assembly on Tuesday, December 22, 2016 instead of Tuesday, December 22, 2015.

    The memo reads in part, “It would be recalled that on Tuesday 22nd December, “2016” (2015) I presented my 2016 budget proposals to the joint sitting of the National Assembly.

    “I submitted a draft bill accompanied by schedule of details.

    “At the time of submission we indicated that because the details had just been produced we would have had to check to ensure that there were no errors in the detailed breakdown contained in the schedule.

    “That has since been completed and I understand that the corrections have been submitted.

    “The National Assembly will therefore have the details as submitted on the 22nd and a copy containing the corrections submitted last week.

    “It appears that this had led to some confusion. In this regard, please find attached a corrected version.

    “This is the version the National Assembly should work with as my 2016 budget estimates.

    “The draft bill remains the same and there are no changes in any of the figures.”

    Details of the corrections made on the fiscal document were not disclosed.

    After reading the letter, Senate Leader, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume, moved for the adoption of the letter so that the communication would formally become a document of the Senate.

    Ndume also moved that with the adoption of the communication, the Senate should consider the budget as amended.

    The two motions were endorsed by the Senate.

     

  • Why Senate disowned 2016 budget, says Senate Leader

    • PDP’s impeachment call joke of the year

     

    The Senate Monday said that it disowned the second version of the 2016 budget brought to it because it failed integrity checks.

    The upper chamber also described Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) call for the impeachment of President Muhammadu Buhari over the budget controversy as the biggest joke of the year.

    Senate Leader, Senator Mohammed Ali Ndume who briefed reporters in Abuja insisted that there was no need to dissipate energy on the 2016 budget since the Senate was in control of the situation.

    Ndume also insisted that the insinuation that the 2016 budget was missing should be completely discountenanced.

    He said that nobody ever declared the budget missing especially when President Buhari did not read the budget off hand.

    The Senate Leader explained that what happened was that some copies of the budget submitted to the Senate were subjected to integrity checks and they failed the checks when compared with the original copy read and presented to the National Assembly by President Buhari.

    He noted that through the integrity checks, the Senate discovered some loopholes that made it to confirm the existence of two versions of the 2016 budget.

    Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, had on Thursday said that the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions discovered that the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters, Senator Ita Enang, printed and submitted to the Senate a fake copy of the 2016 budget.

    Saraki said that the Senate resolved not to consider the budget until the soft copy of the original budget presented by President Buhari on December 22, 2015 was made available to the Senate.

    Enang on Sunday confirmed that; “His Excellency, Mr. President has sent a communication to the National Assembly on the 2016 budget. The content is as will be read on the floor in plenary.”

    Giving more details on why the Senate rejected the second version of the budget, Ndume said that the integrity checks showed that some projects that were not accommodated in the original budget presented by President Buhari were curiously injected into the budget.

    He said that the Senate was jolted by the discovery although the strange projects did not affect the sum total of the budget.

    He said, “There were issues with the budget that some people were not comfortable with. There were integrity checks and it was discovered that there were some loopholes.

    “We asked the Ethics and Privileges Committee to find out what actually happened and it was discovered that there were two versions of the budget.

    “It is not that the figure submitted by Mr. President has changed. It is still the same thing. It is not that what Mr. President submitted is sacrosanct, that it cannot be changed. It can be changed.

    “It is not that the N6.08 trillion budget Mr. President submitted to us has changed or any of the subheads have changed. They are still the same.

    “The President did not submit a failed document. The President submitted a budget, which went through integrity checks.
    “I have my soft and hard copies of the budget. I spent most of the weekend looking at the budget.

    “What I tried to do was to make a comparative analysis. So, I could not find the difference. But then they told that the difference is not in the sub-total or sectoral allocation. They did integrity checks and they gave me an example.

    “That if a certain amount was allocated to do two things and they felt that that amount can be used to do four things. They said instead of two things, do four. They are still talking about spending the same amount but getting more for it.

    “But what I can tell you now is that the budget that was submitted originally, there were certain integrity checks on it that made some changes in the quantity but not in the total.”

    On what informed the integrity checks, he said that the integrity checks became necessary in order to match figures with projects.

    Asked when the budget is likely to be passed considering the controversy trailing it, he said that they are targeting end of February to round off on the budget but for “this mix up.”

    Ndume however assured that “we are committed to turning out the budget on time.”

    On the call to impeach President Buhari over the budget controversy, he said that the talk of impeachment by the PDP is the biggest joke of the year.

    He asked, “What are we to do with PDP for what they did to this country in the past 16 years. We are to kill PDP.

    “Buhari is the kind of leader we want in Nigeria. The good thing is that now we have a president, before we had something else.”

    On the invitation of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, he said that the issue of the falling value of the Naira is of concern to the Senate.

    Ndume said that the Senate wanted to what happening, why the Naira should sell N305 to one dollar.

    He said, “We want to know the implication of what is happening to the Naira to the country especially to the ordinary Nigerian and what should be done to reverse the trend.”

    Reminded that the existence of two parallel markets for the sale of dollar might be the problem, he said that Bureau De Change operations have become a big employment avenue.

    Ndume however added that the BDC operations should not be done in such a way as to affect the economy negatively.

    On the oil benchmark of $38pb, he said “We passed the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) at $38 dollar per barrel. And now crude oil is selling for $29 at the international market.

    “We are praying that every time it goes up. But if it remains like that, we really have to do something. But it’s not something that Senator Ali Ndume will do alone. It is when the Senate sits down to consider this issue that I can come back to you again and speak on behalf of the Senate.”

     

  • Presidency submitted fake 2016 budget – Senate panel

    Presidency submitted fake 2016 budget – Senate panel

    The drama trailing the 2016 budget in the Senate continued Thursday with stunning assertions by the Senate leadership.

    The troubling revelations came after over two hour closed session where the lawmakers were said to have “thoroughly discussed and taken far reaching decisions on the budget.

    After the closed session, Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, announced that the secret meeting centered on the controversy surrounding the 2016 Appropriation Bill.

    He also recalled that they mandated the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions to investigate the matter in order for the Senate to take an informed position.

    Saraki then dropped the bombshell.

    He said that the Senate discovered from the findings of its Ethics committee that the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matter, Senator Ita Enang, printed and submitted to the Senate a different version of the 2016 budget.

    He said that what Enang submitted to the Senate was against the original copy of the Appropriation Bill presented by President Muhammadu Buhari on December 22, 2015.

    Saraki did not stop there.

    He said that the Senate resolved not to work with a version of the Appropriation Bill not laid before the National Assembly.

    He added that the Senate also resolved to consider only the version of Bill presented by President Buhari as soon as they receive soft copy of the original document from the Executive.

    He said, “We have received the report of the Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions on investigations surrounding 2016 Appropriation Bill.

    “Our finding is that Senator Ita Enang, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matter (SSA) printed copies of the 2016 Appropriation Bill and brought to the Senate.

    “We have discovered that what he brought is different from the version presented by Mr. President.

    “We have resolved to consider only the version presented by Mr. President as soon as we receive soft copy of the original document from the Executive.”

    Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi also addressed reporters immediately after Senate plenary to throw more light on the claim of a fake budget.

    Abdullahi spoke in company with the Vice Chairman of his committee, Senator Ben Murray – Bruce.

    He said, “We are here to update you on an issue that has been awash in the media. We are here in continuation of what we have said earlier that the report about a missing budget is not true.

    “We don’t have a budget that is missing and we still maintain that we don’t have a budget that is missing.

    “But you recall that the Senate President did inform Nigerians that there is issue that a committee was asked to investigate.

    “The report of the investigation by the committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petition has been submitted in the Executive session because it was a decision we took in the last Executive session on Tuesday.

    “Now our findings are this, that Mr. President did lay the budget in the Joint session of the National Assembly.

    “Thereafter, the Senate went on recess and upon resumption copies of the document were produced by Senator Ita Enang, who is the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters for Senate and copies were submitted to both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

    “What we found out is that the document submitted by Senator Ita Enang upon our resumption has some differences and discrepancies with what was originally laid by Mr. President in the joint sitting of the National Assembly.

    “However, the Senate in defence in its integrity and honour will not work with what has not been laid in the National Assembly.

    “We are constitutionally mandated and duty bound to consider only that budget that has been so laid by Mr. President.

    “Right now, for reproduction, we are awaiting the soft copy of the originally submitted budget so that the National Assembly can reproduce copies of the budget itself.

    “Because if we reproduce ourselves, then we have confidence in the fact that what we reproduced is what was originally submitted to us.

    “The institution of the Senate will not and cannot do anything that is illegal. We will not do anything that will not promote the unity, integrity and welfare of Nigerians.

    “Some people were saddled with the responsibility to find out what happened.”

    Abdullahi reiterated that “the budget submitted by the President is not missing, “we already have copies of it but what we are saying is that for us to reproduce for our members, it is easier, based on the quantum of document that has to be produced, that we get the soft copy of that original version so that we can reproduce it.”

    He insisted that “by next week, we want to go down to business, Senators have picked dates to speak during the three days set aside for debate of the 2016 budget.”

    Abdullahi also said that the Senate leadership was mandated to speak with all those concerned with the document saying “that was why the Senate President was in touch with Mr. President.”

    The Senate spokesperson however refused to speak on the claim by the House of Representatives that it had its own original version of the fiscal document.

    He also declined to say what amounted to the differences spotted in the version of the budget submitted by Enang and the original version presented by President Buhari.

    “I am not in the position to say the differences between the document submitted by the President and the one brought by Ita Enang. The committee that investigated the issue did not include that in their report,” he claimed.

    Abdullahi said that as at the time the Senate President promised to make copies of the budget available to Senators Thursday, “he was working on the assumption that what were brought by the executive were copies of the original copies submitted by Mr. President.”

    He noted that “but based on the outcry, it was discovered that there are another version different from what the President gave us.”

    The man at the centre of the controversy, Senator Ita Enang, refused to respond to what the Senate President said.

    Enang told anxious reporters who crowded his office that he does not want to join issue with the Senate.

     

  • ‘2016 budget not missing’

    The Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, has said that the 2016 budget proposal was not missing.

    He said no statement made by any Senator during Wednesday’s plenary could be interpreted as an admission that the 2016 budget is missing.

    Abdullahi made the clarification in a statement made available to reporters in Abuja.

    He insisted that no budget is missing and that the Senate will on Thursday distribute copies of the budget to all the Senators to enable contribute to the debate slated for January 19 to 21.

    He noted that all the senators have indicated the date they will make their own contributions on the budget.