Osun budget implementable – Government

The Osun State Government on Tuesday maintained that its 2015 budget was implementable, despite the dwindling resources of the state.

Segun Olorunsogo, the Permanent Secretary, Budget and Economic Planning, said this while giving an overview of the 2015 budget estimates before the Joint House of Assembly Committees on Finance and Appropriation and Public Accounts.

The budget estimates for the year stand at N197,082,191,560, with N110,424,299,010 representing 56.03 per cent, as capital expenditure, and N86,657,892,550, representing 43.97 per cent, as recurrent expenditure.

Olorunsogo said the government would focus on Internally Generated Revenue from the informal sector, which had not been utilised before, apart from revenue from the formal sector, to drive the budget.

He said: “In order to ensure a high level of implementation and performance of the proposed 2015 budget, the actions that will be taken include non-reliance on the revenue from the federation account, due to the unpredictable developments in the international oil market, and the consistent decline in the price of crude oil.

“Renewed aggressiveness in the collection of IGR, especially the revenue collectable from the Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government, as well as the informal sector of the economy, will be used to drive the implementation of the budget.

“We intend to reduce the use of cashiers for revenue collection, while embracing the use of e-payment of revenue charges, which will go a long way in blocking revenue leakages, thus improving revenue generation.

“We will also ensure effective collection of existing taxes and rates, without necessarily increasing or introducing new rates that will bring hardship on the people.”

The Officer-in-Charge of Osun State Internal Revenue Service, Dayo Oyebanji, also informed the House that the service is deploying Point of Sales machines to collect revenue, with a view to blocking leakages in revenue collection in the state.

In his response, Hon. Najeem Salaam, the Speaker of the House, urged the officials of government to be aggressive in generating revenue.

Salaam cautioned that unnecessary hardship should not be brought on the people in the name of boosting internally generated revenue.

He urged officials to work hard in ensuring that what is put on paper becomes a reality, with a view to renewing the hope of the people of the state.

Hon. Kamil Oyedele, the Chairman of the House Committee on Finance and Appropriation, who described the 2015 budget estimates as peculiar, said the House would ensure effective monitoring of the performance of the MDAs.

Part of the plan, Oyedele said, would be to call each of the MDAs to a public hearing to address the people of the state on their performance, especially in the area of revenue generation.