The Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed told Senate Committee on Finance that exiting National budget with overheads cost by some revenue generating agencies is not impactful.
The Senate Committee on Finance headed by Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola had last week announced that federal agencies like the National Agency for Food, Drugs Administration and Control ( NAFDAC) , NIGCOMSAT and Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission, (NERC ) , had agreed to exit the National budget as far as their overhead costs were concerned.
The move as stated by Senator Adeola after an interactive session with heads of the agencies last week, is targeted at reducing yearly budget deficits and getting more revenue to fund budgets.
But the Minister of Finance in her reaction to the move, said since the overhead components of National budget is the smallest , such move will not give the required impacts as far as budget deficits and funding are concerned .
“The 2021 budget is N13.8 trillion with overhead components of just about N380billion .
“So, if any revenue generating government agency, is exiting the national budget with just overhead component, it will not bring about any difference .
“The components that can bring about significant difference or differences, are recurrent and capital components, which none of the said agencies included in their exit plan from the National budget,” she said .