Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
Bayelsa State Government has disclosed that it has completely defrayed the N104 billion bond loan inherited from the Timipre Sylva administration. The state Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Maxwell Ebibai disclosed this during the monthly transparency briefing for the Months of June and July 2019 in Yenagoa.
Ebibai explained that the state government painstakingly undertook the repayment of the debt in spite of numerous financial obligations.
He noted further that the Governor Dickson-led administration is not against deficit financing, but emphasized that borrowed funds must be utilized for development purposes.
His words: “The state government has concluded the payment of bond that was taken by the previous administration. And as a government, our concern is that it carries the assets and liabilities of every government. We have taken on that responsibility painfully and we are done with it.
“There is nothing wrong with a government deciding to do deficit financing but what is important is what we are using it for and we have put it behind us as a state.”
Presenting the revenues and expenditures for the month of July, Ebibai said in the month of June, it recorded internally generated revenue of N1.5 billion as against N910m in May.
He noted that the gross income from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee, (FAAC), stood at N11.6 billion, while total FAAC deductions amounted to N1.1 billion.
According to him, the statutory allocation for the month of July was N3.4 billion, derivation, N7 billion, Value Added Tax, N928 million and exchange gain differential of N23 million.