Fuel Subsidy To Gulp ₦450bn In 2020 – Zainab Ahmed

Fuel Subsidy To Gulp ₦450bn In 2020 - Zainab Ahmed
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The Minister for Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, says under-recovery of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly referred to as fuel subsidy, will gulp ₦450bn in 2020.

She said this on Monday in Abuja, at the public presentation of the 2020 budget proposals.

Ahmed said it was called ‘under-recovery’ because it was the cost of operation of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation.

“We have a provision for under-recovery of PMS in the sum of ₦450bn. If you look at the Budget office’s website, it is in the fiscal framework, which is an annexure to the budget.”

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that President Muhammadu Buhari had, on Tuesday, presented a budget proposal of ₦10.33trn to a joint session of the National Assembly.

He put the Federal Government’s estimated revenue in 2020 at ₦8.155trn, comprising oil revenue of ₦2.64trn, non-oil tax revenues of ₦1.81trn and other revenue of ₦3.7trn.

Other estimates are ₦556.7bn for statutory transfers, ₦2.45trn for debt servicing and provision of ₦296bn as sinking fund.

The 2020 budget is based on an oil production estimate of 2.18 million barrels per day, oil price benchmark of 57 dollars per barrel and an exchange rate of ₦305 to a dollar.

Ahmed said that recurrent (non-debt) spending was expected to rise by 11.28 percent, from ₦4.39 trillion in 2019 to ₦4.88 trillion in 2020.

This, she said, would reflect in salaries and pensions, including provisions for implementation of the new minimum wage.

Ahmed said that the overall budget deficit of ₦2.17 trillion represents 1.52 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and ₦1.64 trillion of it would be funded by both domestic and external borrowing.

According to her, the external sources will provide ₦850 billion, while domestic sources will provide ₦744.99 billion.

Citing the top 12 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) capital allocations, she said the Ministry of Works and Housing was allocated ₦259.2 billion, Ministry of Power ₦127.67 billion, Ministry of Transportation ₦123.07 billion, Ministry of Education (including Universal Basic Education Commission) ₦162.74 billion.

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Others are Ministry of Defence ₦99.87 billion, Ministry of Health ₦90.98 billion, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development ₦79.79 billion and Ministry of Water Resources ₦78.34 billion.

Some others are Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development ₦45.45 billion, Ministry of Aviation ₦53.85 billion, Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment ₦41.34 billion and Ministry of Science and Technology ₦37.55 billion.

She, however, said that there were key expenditures captured in the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), but were not in the 2020 budget.

“They are ₦61 billion for the Presidential Power Initiative, ₦1.22 trillion for federally funded projects in the oil and gas sector to be undertaken by NNPC on behalf of the federation.

“Others are ₦272 billion as transfers to Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) for infrastructure projects in tertiary institutions and ₦82.35 billion as transfer to Nigeria Sovereign Wealth Investment (NSIA) for Public-Private Partnership/Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF),” she said.

For revenue, Ahmed said there were Strategic Revenue Growth Initiatives (SRGI) aimed at boosting revenue generation to meet targeted revenue to GDP ratio of 15 percent.

She said further that the SRGI would be implemented with increased vigour to improve revenue collection and expenditure management.

She said that Nigeria must mobilise significant resources to invest in human capital development and critical infrastructure.

“Some reforms will be tough but they must be done to look at the facts and be frank to ourselves.

“However, we will engage the public sector in whatever we do, including any changes in taxes, with regards to rates or administration methods.”

(NAN)

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