Nigeria (Blank NEWS Online) By Albert OGRAKA–
Governor of oil and gas wealthy Delta state, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa has assented to the 2016 Appropriation bill of N268 billion for the fiscal year.
The 2016 appropriation bill showed an increase of N2.5 billion from the N265.6 billion earlier presented to the State House of Assembly by Governor Ifeanyi Okowa in December 2015.
While signing the appropriation bill into law, Okowa assured that the projected Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of N75 bilion would drive the implementation of the budget, explaining that the increase of N2.5 billion was to facilitate the completion of ongoing project at the Asaba Airport.
The Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly, Monday Igbuya accompanied by the Deputy Speaker, Friday Osanebi, the Clerk of the House, Mrs Lyna Ochulor and other principal officers on Tuesday, presented the appropriation bill christened, “Budget of Renewed Hope And Inclusive Development,” to the Governor for his assent at the Government House, Asaba.
At the signing of the appropriation bill, Governor Okowa lauded the legislators for its speedy passage which would translate into massive infrastructure development of the state before the commencement of the rains.
“This budget that have been assented to in good time, gives us enough room to utilise the dry season in our infrastructure development plans and I must appreciate the Speaker and members of the Delta State House of Assembly for taking their time, during the festive season to truly work on the budget, ensuring that we had a very speedy passage of the budget,” he said, disclosing, “with the bill that was signed into law, we have appropriated N153 billion as recurrent expenditure and N114 billion for capital expenditure and by God’s grace, we hope to work very strongly to generate the revenue to implement the budget in full.”
He added, “it is our hope that the Board of Internal Revenue (DBIR) would exceed the target of N75 billion from the N40 billion that we had last year; I believe that it is achievable because, we are going to block all loopholes and ensure that more people come into the tax net.”
The Governor specifically urged Deltans to pay their tax, assuring, “we will do our best to be accountable and money collected from taxes would be ploughed back to the development of the state.”
Governor Okowa commended the good working relationship between all arms of government in the state, noting that such partnership would lead to faster delivery of his administration’s mandate of prosperity for all Deltans.
Rt. Hon. Igbuya had told the Governor and members of the state executive council who were present at the occasion, that the Assembly members, “took time off and did justice to the bill in line with your administration’s drive for good time and prosperity agenda.”
Recal that the Delta State House of Assembly had on Tuesday, January 12, 2016 passed the 2016 Appropriation bill of N268 billion for the fiscal year.
The passage of the appropriation bill followed a report presented by the Chairman of the House Committee on Finance and Appropriation, Erhiatake Ibori, during the proceedings of the state of the Assembly in Asaba.
The 2016 appropriation bill showed an increase of N2.5 billion from the N265.6 billion earlier presented to the State House of Assembly by Governor Ifeanyi Okowa in December 2015.
The sum of N153.2 billion was approved for Recurrent Expenditure, while the Capital Expenditure had N114.8 billion.
According to the budget breakdown, the economic sector had a total of N25.7 billion, while the social sector had N17.4 billion.
The sum of N27.7 billion was approved for the environmental sector, while the sum of N15.2 billion was appropriated for the General Administration sector.
The chairman of the committee, while presenting the report noted that the approved budget was specific, realistic and implementable.
Ibori also said that the budget would effectively kick-start the ‘SMART’ agenda of the present administration as well as ensure the commitment of the state government on the provision of critical infrastructure, including roads, hospitals, schools and electricity.
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E.I.C: Albert Eruorhe Ograka
