President Muhammadu Buhari has a record N20.51 trillion proposed budget for the 2023 financial year to presented before the two chambers of the National Assembly,
The budget, which he presented on Friday is the highest so far in the nation’s history.
This is the last budget Buhari will present as his tenure ends on May 29, 2023.
Buhari said that the 8th financial blueprint of his administration is tagged the Budget of Fiscal Sustainability and Transition.
Addressing the NASS members, Buhari said that the 2023 transition budget was tailored to tackle critical issues and lay a solid foundation for the incoming administration.
According to the President, based on these fiscal assumptions and parameters, total federally-collectible revenue is estimated at 16.87 trillion Naira in 2023.
He equally said that the total federally distributable revenue is estimated at 11.09 trillion Naira in 2023, while total revenue available to fund the 2023 Federal Budget is estimated at 9.73 trillion Naira.
According to him, this includes the revenues of 63 Government-Owned Enterprises.
Buhari further said that oil revenue is projected at 1.92 trillion Naira, Non-oil taxes are estimated at 2.43 trillion Naira, FGN Independent revenues are projected to be 2.21 trillion Naira.
Other revenues total 762 billion Naira, while the retained revenues of the GOEs amount to N2.42 trillion Naira.
The president emphasised 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,” he said.
While N2.42 trillion Naira would be for spending by Government-Owned Enterprises, the proposed 20.51 trillion Naira 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.
Buhari also said that the government expects a total fiscal operation to result in a deficit of 10.78 trillion Naira.
He said this would 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 said.
He continued to say that the government plans to finance the deficit mainly by new borrowings totalling 8.80 trillion Naira, 206.18 billion Naira from Privatization Proceeds and 1.77 trillion Naira drawdowns on bilateral and multilateral loans secured for specific development projects and programmes.