Uduaghan Presents N398.4bn Appropriation Bill For 2013

Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta has presented a budget proposal of N398.3 billion for the 2013 fiscal year before the state House of Assembly for approval.

Presenting the proposal last Friday, Uduaghan said that the budget was made up of N145.9 billion for recurrent expenditure and N252.3 billion for capital expenditure.

He said that the 2013 budget proposal showed a decrease of N38.9 billion when compared to the N437.2 billion approved as budget for 2012.

Uduaghan said that the 2013 budget, christened “Delta without oil’’ would focus on programmes that would stimulate job creation as well as completion of ongoing projects.

“The main objective of the 2013 budget is to drive Delta State beyond oil and in pursuit of this; our focus shall be programmes that would stimulate job creation and the completion of ongoing projects.

“We have chosen key projects that we can complete and deliver in the year or in 2014.

“Where it was necessary, few new projects were also considered and included,’’ he said.

The governor said that the projected revenue for the state for 2013 was estimated at N61.4 billion as against N51.4 billion in the 2012 budget.

He said that Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) estimate for 2013 was higher than the 2012 approved estimate by N10 billion.

He said that the projected revenue would be sourced from IGR, statutory allocation, value added tax and other capital receipts.

Uduaghan said, “we have arrived at new approaches for revenue collection that will also result in increase in the IGR.

“The sum of N198.5billion is expected from statutory allocation from the Federation Account in 2012 fiscal year.

“This amount is more than the N170 billion budget of last year by 28.5 billion. This decrease is attributed to higher expectations from oil revenues next year,’’ he said.

The governor said that N6 billion was allocated to the agricultural sector in the 2013 fiscal year, while N4 billion was allocated for the development of power and infrastructure.

He said that N1 billion was allocated to the State Micro Credit Scheme in the 2013 budget proposal, while N20.2 billion was provided for the completion of ongoing roads projects.