Gov. Okowa presents N270.91b 2017 budget to Assembly

Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State on Thursday presented a N270.91 billion 2017 budget to the state House of Assembly for consideration.
Presenting the budget, tagged: “Budget of Fiscal Consolidation and Steady Progress,” Okowa said that N151.9 billion was earmarked for Recurrent Expenditure, while N119 billion was for Capital Expenditure.
He noted that the 2017 appropriation showed a slight increase of N2.7 billion over the 2016 approved budget of N268.1 billion.
Okowa said that the main sources of the budget included the Internally Generated Revenue, statutory allocation, Value Added Tax and other capital receipts.
He explained that the state was projecting N70.1 billion as IGR in 2017, adding that the amount was lower than the 2016 budget by N5.2 billion.
He said: “In line with the state fiscal strategy forecasts, the sum of N148.9 billion of projected revenue for 2017 fiscal year is expected to come from the statutory allocation.
“This amount is slightly more than the sum of N137.9 billion projected for the 2016 fiscal year by N10 billion.
“This optimistic forecast for 2017 is based on expected improvement in the fiscal and financial discipline of the Federal Government and its peace efforts in the Niger Delta region to tackle pipeline bombing.
“It is assumed that the current reforms by the Federal Government, especially full disclosure of all revenues in line with the International Public Sector Accounting Standard, will help increase accruing revenues to the Federation Account.”
The breakdown of the budget showed that the economic sector has the lion share of N29.4 billion, followed by the State Oil Producing Area Development Commission with N28 billion.
The governor reiterated his administration’s commitment to grow and manage the economy of the state as it moves from sole dependency on oil to a stronger diversified source.
In his remarks, the Deputy Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Friday Osanebi, lauded the governor for the budget presentation and assured that the budget would be meticulously looked into by the House.