The Lagos State government yesterday said it would reduce dependence on federal allocation and increase its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to N30 billion monthly next year and N50 billion monthly in 2018.
It is also aiming at a yearly budget of N1 trillion by 2018.
These were part of resolutions after a four-day retreat for the State Executive Council, Body of Permanent Secretaries and heads of government agencies and parastatals at the VIP Chalets in Badagry, with the theme: “Reflect, Reappraise, Restrategise: Raising the Bar of Governance.”
According to the government, efforts are being made to scale up and run efficient revenue collection through the convergence of the Ministries, Departments and Agencies’ (MDAs) operations and utilisation of cutting-edge technology.
In a communiqué after the retreat, read by Commissioner for Information and Strategy Steve Ayorinde; Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget Akinyemi Ashade and Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Information, Fola Adeyemi, the government said participants deliberated on the six pillars of Lagos State Development Plan (LSDP).
They are infrastructural development, sustainable environment, finance, economic development, social development as well as security and governance.
On the budget plan, Ashade said although the target was ambitious, appropriate measures were being adopted to achieve the plan.
The state’s 2016 budget is N662.588 billion – the highest since 1999.
Ashade said: “Yes, it is ambitious. It requires thinking and what we are going to do differently is to ensure we use technology to drive it in terms of automation and collection. What we are also going to ensure is that the reform around consumption taxes is taken to another level. The land administration system, the EGIS, also will support this initiative and we believe once we are through with automation of the processes, the reform in the consumption tax administration and blocking loopholes, we believe we will have the right funding to finance these plans. We will not forget one critical fact, which is that all is about Public-Private-Partnership because we are also going to use that to drive implementation of our plan,” Ashade said.
Ayorinde said participants reaffirmed the administration’s vision to make life better and meaningful as well as recognising the government’s role as enabler and resolved to create the enabling environment to promote and advance the wellbeing of Lagosians.
He said participants agreed to achieve a 100 per cent budget performance, with a 58 per cent to 42 per cent ratio for capital and recurrent expenditure.
The commissioner added that the MDAs not yet integrated into the Treasury Single Account (TSA) will be brought in before the end of this quarter.
On tourism, Ayorinde said participants acknowledged its imperative and the need to invest more in the sector with emphasis on improving technological capacity of the Lottery Board to create jobs and increase revenue generation.
Other key conclusions at the retreat, Ayorinde said, include the need to improve on the performance of Lagos Water Corporation (LWC) in the production of water and collection of water tariff as well as encouraging private sector investment in production and supply of portable water, mapping out strategies towards food security, especially by increasing rice production to reduce dependence on food importation within the next three years.
