From Paul Osuyi, Asaba
Delta State Government has approved an ‘indicative budget’ of N425 billion for 2022.
Briefing newsmen on the outcome of the State Executive Council meeting, Commissioner for Economic Planning, Dr. Barry Gbe, said that the council approved the proposal after due consideration of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework and the Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF and FSP) in line with the Fiscal Responsibility Law 2020.
Gbe who was flanked by the Commissioner for Information, Charles Aniagwu, stated that his ministry had proposed a budget of N388 billion for the period but that the figure was jerked up by the council to accommodate other matters not envisaged earlier.
According to him, after deliberations, debates and a deeper look into what 2022 should look like, in its wisdom, the State Executive Council increased the N388 billion that was recommended to N425 billion.
Gbe, however, disclosed that the N425 budget was “indicative”, saying “it is not full and final.
“So, we will be going to the House of Assembly with an indicative figure of N425 billion as a total budget size for 2022.
“The micro economic indicators that informed the indicative 2022 budget was a deliberate adoption of the Federal Government MTEF and FSP where they planned crude oil to be sold at 57 dollars per barrel in 2022, with daily production of oil at 1.88 million barrels and exchange rate of N410 to the dollar.
“These are the indicative figures that made up the micro economic framework of the Federal Government and that is what we also used in our projections.
“However, the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) which for 2021 half year was put at N35 billion is to be scaled up through what we are trying to put in the informal sector so that we can become a little ambitious and then increase it from the N65 billion plus of 2021 to doing N75 billion in 2022.
“We also try to scale down what we called net financing which is to say that we don’t need to borrow much to increase the revenue side of our 2022 budget. However, in our intention to finish strong, we felt that there would be need to also maintain some figures around net financing.
“So, the revenue side of the budget for 2022 will be adequately funded through the statutory allocation, the IGR of the state, grants that we expect from donor agencies and multilateral agencies like the World Bank, UNESCO, UNICEF and some others that might likely come up,” he added.
The commissioner stated that the executive council also projected that the capital expenditure side shoud be higher than the recurrent expenditure side of the budget.
According to him, the state government will be doing a 56/44 ratio distribution between capital and recurrent expenditures to enable it finish ongoing capital projects in 2022.