President Buhari Presents N20.51trn 2023 Budget Proposal To NASS
By The9JaTREND
President of the federal republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari on Friday, 7th October, 2022 presented N20.51 trillion budget proposal for the 2023 financial year before the National Assembly.
The N20.51 trillion budget which is the highest so far in the history of Nigeria, is the last to be presented by the president before his tenure elapses next year.
According to the president, this 8th financial blueprint of his administration is tagged the budget of Fiscal Sustainability and transition.
President Buhari while addressing members of the parliament noted that the 2023 transition budget was designed to address critical issues and lay a solid foundation for the incoming administration.
“I believes that based on these fiscal assumptions and parameters, total federally-collectible revenue is estimated at N16.87 trillion in 2023,” Buhari said.
Going further, he added that the total federally distributable revenue is estimated at N.09 trillion in 2023, while total revenue available to fund the 2023 Federal Budget is estimated at N9.73 trillion.
This he said includes the revenues of 63 Government-Owned Enterprises.
The president also disclosed that oil revenue is projected at N1.92 trillion, Non-oil taxes are estimated at N2.43 trillion, FGN Independent revenues are projected to be N2.21 trillion.
Other revenues total N762 billion, while the retained revenues of the GOEs amount to N2.42 trillion.
President Buhari’s speech stressed that the 2023 Appropriation Bill aims to maintain the focus of MDAs on the revenue side of the budget and greater attention to internal revenue generation.
“Sustenance of revenue diversification strategy would further increase the non-oil revenue share of total revenues,” President Buhari opined.
While N2.42 trillion would be for spending by Government-Owned Enterprises, the proposed N20.51 trillion 2023 expenditure comprises:
Statutory Transfers of N744.11 billion; Non-debt Recurrent Costs of N8.27 trillion; Personnel Costs of N4.99 trillion; Pensions, Gratuities and Retirees’ Benefits of N854.8 billion; Overheads of N1.11 trillion; Capital Expenditure of N5.35 trillion, including the capital component of Statutory Transfers; Debt Service of N6.31 trillion; and Sinking Fund of N247.73 billion to retire certain maturing bonds.
President Buhari said the government expects a total fiscal operations of to result in a deficit of N10.78 trillion.
This he noted represents 4.78 percent of estimated GDP, above the 3 percent threshold set by the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007.
“As envisaged by the law, we need to exceed this threshold considering the need to continue to tackle the existential security challenges facing the country,” Buhari elucidated.
Speaking further, the president revealed that the government plans to finance the deficit mainly by new borrowings totaling N8.80 trillion, N206.18 billion from Privatization Proceeds and N1.77 trillion drawdowns on bilateral and multilateral loans secured for specific development projects and programmes.
