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Rose Ejembi, Makurdi
Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom has signed into law, the 2020 revised budget of N108.8 billion.
Recall that the state government had earlier reviewed the 2020 budget from N190.8 billion downward to N108.8 billion.
The Governor who assented to the revised budget at Government house, Makurdi on Monday explained that government had to revise its intended budget downward based on certain projections.
He listed some of the projections to include the oil bench mark, oil production benchmark; exchange rate of the Naira to the Dollar; inflation rate, as well as the National GDP growth rate.
Ortom posited further that it was based on those projections, that government arrived at the figure of N108.8 for 2020 in response to changing circumstances in the nation’s economic polity.
“You will all recall that the 2020 budget was reviewed and passed by the State House of Assembly and I duly signed it into law on 30th December, 2019 for implementation with effect from 1st January, 2020.
“However, by the end of the first quarter it became clear that we must revise the budget as a result of the global economic shocks created by the oil price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia and the disruptive impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It is in response to these changing circumstances that we have been forced to revise the macroeconomic projections on which the approved budget was set.
He said as a result of these projections, tje state is facing a fall in both oil-related and non-oil revenues, which could be anything between a 57% to 67% drop over the course of the year.
“Income from traditional revenue sources such as earnings, tax, PMS under-recovery (now zero) and Value Added Tax (VAT) is expected to decline along with our own Internally Generated Revenue (IGR). Needless to say, these adjustments have made it necessary for us to revise the approved 2020 budget.
“Noting the above assumptions and taking into consideration the impact of oil crash and COVID-19 on the global, national and sub-national economies, we are now proposing the total sum of N108,822,683,181.00 only for approval as revised estimated aggregate revenue from all sources in fiscal year 2020.
“This figure represents a reduction of N80,660,827,844.00 or 43% from the approved year 2020 revenue estimates.” he observed.
Highlights of the budget include N68,557,429,886.00 for recurrent expenditure, while Capital expenditure is pegged at N40,265,253,253295.46; N37,286,131,793.26 is for personnel costs, while overhead is pegged at N1,271,298,093.51.
