Business
NASS To Appropriate 60% Of 2011 Budget For Capital Expenditure
Sen. Mohammed Muhammed has said that the National Assembly will approve 60 per cent of the 2011 budget for capital expenditure.
Muhammed (ANPP-Bauchi Central) made this known on Saturday in Darazo, headquarters of Darazo Local Government Area of Bauchi State, in an interview with newsmen.
He said that the National Assembly was taking the measure to reduce the huge funds that were spent on recurrent expenditure.
Muhammed noted that in previous budgets, meagre funds were allocated for capital expenditure, adding that the development made the execution of some vital projects difficult.
He noted that the recurrent expenditure in the nation’s budget was always more than the capital expenditure, adding that this had affected the implementation of many projects.
Muhammed stressed the need to ensure that the capital expenditure was more than the recurrent expenditure if Nigeria was to achieve any meaningful development.
“There is the need to either balance the budget to the ratio of 50:50 for both capital and recurrent expenditure or 60:40 in favour of capital expenditure.
“But it will be good for the N3 trillion-budget submitted to the National Assembly by President Goodluck Jonathan to be approved in the ratio of 60:40 in favour of capital expenditure.
“The National Assembly has equally promised to reduce its recurrent expenditure in favour of capital expenditure when it reconvenes after the political parties’ primaries,’’ he said.
Muhammed, who won his party primaries to contest for the same senatorial seat in April, said that “if we reconvene after this break, we will ensure that the budgets of both the legislature and the executive are slashed.
“We will definitely slash the budgets in a way that it will favour capital expenditure. We intend to appropriate 70:30 for the National Assembly’s capital and recurrent expenditure.
“We discover that in the N158 billion allocated to the National Assembly in the N3 trillion budget; the recurrent expenditure takes the lion share.
“And the same thing is applicable to the executive arm of the government,” Muhammed said.