From: Gyang Bere, Jos
Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State has presented a budget of N145 billion to the state’s House of Assembly for 2018 fiscal year.
The 2018 budget is about N5 billion more than the 2017 budget of N139 billion he presented to the Assembly last year.
In the 2018 budget estimate, christened “Budget of Rescue and Consolidation” Governor Lalong noted that it was estimated based on the expectation that the revenue sharing formula would improve as well as Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) collection in the state.
He gave the recurrent expenditure estimate as N 75 billion which represents 52.13 percent of the estimate while the capital expedition is estimated to N69 billion representing 48.8 percent of the total estimated budget.
According to the governor, Ministries of Works and Transport, Government House Administration and Finance and the Ministry of Education took the lion share of the budget with N18 billion N15 billion and N11 billion, respectively.
In his words, “In view of the dwindling resources accruing t the State, the Plateau State Internal Revenue Service will be more proactive in taxes and other revenue collects for the purpose of improving the revenue-base on the state.
“The Task-Force on revenue generation and collection recent constituted by the Government is expected to support the board in collecting revenue and block all leakages. Revenue courts and judges have been assigned and all defaulters will not be spared.”
Governor Lalong pledged the priority of his administration in the payment of works salaries and allowances of civil servants and pensions of retirees.