FG borrows N473bn to pay salaries, overheads & other expenditure - Okonjo-Iweala

The Minister of Finance and Co-ordinating
Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-
Iweala, yesterday, put to rest fears of immediate
removal of fuel subsidy, as she confirmed that
N145.2 billion provision was made for it in 2015
budget.
Speaking to newsmen in Abuja, she said: “I want
to clarify that there has been some
misinformation that has gone around in the
media about the fact that the National Assembly
passed the 2015 budget without provision for
fuel subsidy. It is not true. It is important to
note that the National Assembly approved the
N100 billion provisions for PMS and N45.2 billion
provision for kerosene subsidy.
They approved that. So it is not true that they
approved the budget without the subsidy. They
retained various elements of the first line
charges we put in. But let me say that they were
based on the above parameters. The gross
federally collectable revenue for the federation
increased by N169.845 billion. From N9.64
trillion to N9.78 trillion as a result of raising the
benchmark price by a dollar.
The minister further stated that managing the
economy since the crash in oil prices had been
very tough for her team which had to adopt
various strategies to keep the economy running.
She said: “As you know, I have been honest with
you since the current economic problems
started. I would like to repeat: we have serious
challenges, things have been tough since the
beginning of the year and they are likely to
remain so till the end of the year. We have
serious challenges but we also have strengths
and if we do the right things we can keep a
steady course and emerge out of the current
situation.
 “As a result of the 50 per cent decline in oil
revenues, the country has faced a difficult cash
crunch and the Federal Government has focused
on keeping the economy stable and the
government running through a series of
measures. We have front-loaded the borrowing
programme to manage the cash crunch in the
economy.
Okonjo-Iweala said the Federal Government had
already utilised more than half of the budgetary
provisions for borrowing in the year, in the first
four months to pay salaries and provide funds
for overheads.
Govt borrows N473bn to meet up with recurrent
expenditure She said: “Of the N882 billon
budgetary provision for borrowing, the
government has borrowed N473 billion to meet
up with recurrent expenditure, including salaries
and overheads. No capital release so far.
“Traditionally, the first part of the year witnessed
low revenue because tax receipts come in from
the middle of the year. This has compounded the
challenges caused by the steep drop in revenues
due to the oil price fall. As a consequence of the
revenue challenges, there has been no capital
budget release so far this year but we have kept
the recurrent expenditure going."
“On the part of the Federal Government; now,
Federal Government budget revenue went up
from N3.52 trillion from a position of N3.358
trillion so when we sent in the budget, Federal
Government revenue was N3.358 trillion. They
returned it with a slight difference of N3.452
trillion.
On the expenditure side, the aggregate
expenditure part was higher than what we went
in with. The Federal Government went in with a
proposed aggregate expenditure of N4.42 trillion
and the National Assembly cast expenditure of
N4.49 trillion, which was N67.43 billion higher
than the proposed expenditure. Debt service was
left unchanged at N943.62 billion.
The National Assembly increased statutory
transfers; you know, these are transfers that go
to the MDGs like the National Assembly itself,
NDDC, UBEC, Human Rights Commission and
others. I will not read of these but just know
that the National Assembly increased NDDC.
She stated that, “the fiscal deficit was decreased
slightly from N1.067 trillion to N1. 04 trillion but
the essential thing to note is that the fiscal
deficit decreased from 11 per cent to 1. 09 per
cent so this is a difficult budget but a
responsible one.