The Federal government on Tuesday announced plans to roll over 60 per cent of the capital projects in the 2017 Budget to the 2018 Budget proposal.
This came amid revelation of plans by the government to increase taxes on private jets, champagne, cigarettes and others.
But senators kicked against the proposal of the Federal Government to roll over 60 per cent of the 2017 capital projects to 2018.
The decision of the Federal Government to roll over capital projects in 2017 was made known by the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, who hinged the decision on the advice of the Senate Committee on Appropriation and Finance to the Executive on how to make the budget more workable.
Adeosun, who appeared before Senate Joint Committee on Finance and Appropriation, said: “We had a rollover from the 2016 to the 2017 budget.
She said: “There was no stoppage in terms of capital spent.
“Project simply continued.
“The way in which we allocated the fund, the prioritisation was according to the objectives of the economy and growth plan.
“We were focused on project completion.
“We prioritised projects that were nearer to completion, that were critical in the first releases of capital.
“We need more of your support.
“We have a number of resolutions that we need complete with international borrowings.”
Adeosun told the senators that the Executive is waiting for National Assembly to approve Foreign loans proposed to them before the government can be able to fund the budget effectively.
The minister said it would be extremely difficult for the government to meet with financial obligations in the 2017 capital budget, pointing out that there was N2.3 trillion budget deficit in the budget.
Adeosun informed the committee that the domestic borrowing will not be enough to fund the gaps in the budget, stressing that the cost of domestic debt borrowing was getting too high.
She added that borrowing from foreign market is far cheaper than domestic borrowing.
Giving the details of the releases so far in the 2017 Budget, Adeosun said: “The cumulative releases on Current Expenditure is N1.5 trillion.
Adeosun said: “We are fully on course in terms of salaries releases.
“Statutory Transfers, N128.8 billion; Funds for pensions, N37.8 billion; Overheads, N92.4 billion; Service Wide Vote, N223.6 billion; Capital Expenditure, N340.9 billion, and we successfully raised N100 billion to be released this week.
“At the end of this week, we would have released about N440.9 billion on capital budget for 2017.”
Angered by the Adeosun’s submission on the budget, senators, who spoke in turns, expressed dissatisfaction with the government’s plan to roll over the 2017 capital projects to 2018.
In his reaction, Senator Ibrahim Gumel said what the ministers are doing is going to be very inimical to the interest of the All Progressives Congress in the 2019 general elections.
Also speaking, Senator John Enoh warned that the development may lead to loss of a whole fiscal year.
In his contribution, Senator Barau Jubril wondered why the government will roll over capital expenditure when there is drastic improvement in government earnings.
Speaking earlier, the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma, stated that government lacked adequate funding for the budget, saying that this week the government intends to release over N100 billion to the already released N340.9 billion.