The Federal Government is to spend N6.5trn in the 2017 fiscal year.
This was contained in a budget call circular issued by the office of the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, to all Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs. The circular was made available to the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, in Abuja yesterday.
According to the circular, the budget estimate is in accordance with the 2017-2019 Medium Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF, and Fiscal Strategy Paper, FSP.
It said the aggregate Federal Government retained revenue for the 2017 fiscal year was projected at N4.1trn, while the aggregate expenditure level was projected to be N6.9trn.
“This aggregate expenditure is made up of statutory transfers of N370.7bn, Debt Service of N1.63trn, Recurrent (non-debt) expenditure of N2.56trn and Capital expenditure of N1.76trn.
“The N1.63trn in respect of Debt Service is made up of N1.47bn for domestic debt; N159.6bn for foreign debt and N177.4bn for sinking fund to retire maturing loans.”
It said that the capital expenditure would be guided strictly by justification and critical nature of such programmes and budgets.
It also said the N1.76trn set aside for critical capital expenditure includes N150bn for Special Intervention Programme, N200bn for Capital Supplementation and N1.41trn for MDAs’ capital expenditure.
“Additionally, the Federal Government intends to incur recurrent expenditure of N350bn on the Special Intervention Programmes, bringing the total to N500bn,” it said.
The document also directed all MDAs to prepare the budget based on the 2017-2019 MTEF.
According to the circular, the budget preparation should take into consideration the policies and strategies contained in the document as it outlines the development priorities of the Federal Government.
It also noted that the annual budget would continue to be prepared using the Zero-Based Budgeting (ZBB) approach and in line with the government’s policy thrust.
The circular discouraged the practice of regular incremental budget adjustments; each project was to be carefully scrutinised before resources were allocated and that the ZBB process places emphasis on actual needs and not wants.
“Therefore, all MDAs are to carefully scrutinise and justify their projects and programmes for which resources are to be allocated in line with the immediate needs of the country and government’s development priorities,” the circular added.
The priorities were grouped into six broad pillars to reflect the 26 policy priority programmes of the Federal Government.
It listed the pillars to be economic reforms/growth, social development, critical infrastructure, states/regional development, governance, security and environment.
Regarding budget ceilings, it said MDAs were required to work within their 2016 expenditure ceilings to make their 2017 capital and overhead budget submissions.
It said in preparing their budget estimates, the MDAs were required to adopt the approved price list for various items as published by the Bureau for Public Procurement, BPP.
The MDAs were also required to make their submissions online using the web-based budget preparation application on or before September16.
Bilateral budget discussions to review the received proposals for compliance with the guidelines and for consistency with the developmental priorities of the government were also scheduled to hold between September 19 and September 30.
It would be recalled that the Federal Executive Council on August 24 approved the 2017-2019 MTEF and FSP.
The budget call circular is in line with the 2017 budget preparation calendar signalling the commencement of MDAs’ preparation of their 2017 budget.
This was contained in a budget call circular issued by the office of the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, to all Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs. The circular was made available to the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, in Abuja yesterday.
According to the circular, the budget estimate is in accordance with the 2017-2019 Medium Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF, and Fiscal Strategy Paper, FSP.
It said the aggregate Federal Government retained revenue for the 2017 fiscal year was projected at N4.1trn, while the aggregate expenditure level was projected to be N6.9trn.
“This aggregate expenditure is made up of statutory transfers of N370.7bn, Debt Service of N1.63trn, Recurrent (non-debt) expenditure of N2.56trn and Capital expenditure of N1.76trn.
“The N1.63trn in respect of Debt Service is made up of N1.47bn for domestic debt; N159.6bn for foreign debt and N177.4bn for sinking fund to retire maturing loans.”
It said that the capital expenditure would be guided strictly by justification and critical nature of such programmes and budgets.
It also said the N1.76trn set aside for critical capital expenditure includes N150bn for Special Intervention Programme, N200bn for Capital Supplementation and N1.41trn for MDAs’ capital expenditure.
“Additionally, the Federal Government intends to incur recurrent expenditure of N350bn on the Special Intervention Programmes, bringing the total to N500bn,” it said.
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| Zainab Ahmed |
The document also directed all MDAs to prepare the budget based on the 2017-2019 MTEF.
According to the circular, the budget preparation should take into consideration the policies and strategies contained in the document as it outlines the development priorities of the Federal Government.
It also noted that the annual budget would continue to be prepared using the Zero-Based Budgeting (ZBB) approach and in line with the government’s policy thrust.
The circular discouraged the practice of regular incremental budget adjustments; each project was to be carefully scrutinised before resources were allocated and that the ZBB process places emphasis on actual needs and not wants.
“Therefore, all MDAs are to carefully scrutinise and justify their projects and programmes for which resources are to be allocated in line with the immediate needs of the country and government’s development priorities,” the circular added.
The priorities were grouped into six broad pillars to reflect the 26 policy priority programmes of the Federal Government.
It listed the pillars to be economic reforms/growth, social development, critical infrastructure, states/regional development, governance, security and environment.
Regarding budget ceilings, it said MDAs were required to work within their 2016 expenditure ceilings to make their 2017 capital and overhead budget submissions.
It said in preparing their budget estimates, the MDAs were required to adopt the approved price list for various items as published by the Bureau for Public Procurement, BPP.
The MDAs were also required to make their submissions online using the web-based budget preparation application on or before September16.
Bilateral budget discussions to review the received proposals for compliance with the guidelines and for consistency with the developmental priorities of the government were also scheduled to hold between September 19 and September 30.
It would be recalled that the Federal Executive Council on August 24 approved the 2017-2019 MTEF and FSP.
The budget call circular is in line with the 2017 budget preparation calendar signalling the commencement of MDAs’ preparation of their 2017 budget.
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