FG targets N6.866trn 2017 BUDGET

                                     
President Muhammadu Buhari has proposed a budget of N6.866 tril­lion for the 2017 fis­cal year.
In the proposed budget, the Federal Government fixed the oil benchmark at $42.5 and the exchange rate of N290 to $1 as well as an oil production target of of 2.2 million barrels per day.
These projections are con­tained in the Medium Term Ex­penditure Framework (MTEF) and Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP) the President sent to the Na­tional Assembly for approval on Tuesday.
The Federal Government also projected N6.847 trillion and N7.117 trillion budgets for 2018 and 2019. It pegged $45 per barrel and $50 per barrel oil benchmark for 2018 and 2019 respectively.

The President’s letter was read on the floor of the House of Representatives by the Speak­er, Hon. Yakubu Dogara.
Buhari raised the oil pro­duction target for 2018 to 2.3 million per barrel and 2.4 mil­lion per barrel per day for 2019 while he estimated the ex­change rate at N290 to $1 ex­change rate for 2018 and 2019.
The 2017 budget is higher than the N6.060 trillion budg­et for the current year.
The President said that the revenue for this year will be raised from shared oil revenue of N1.3 trillion, N14.111 billion shared dividend from the Nige­ria Liquefied and Natural Gas (NLNG), N1.064 trillion from the mineral and mining sector; non-oil revenue of N1.508 tril­lion; N902.8 billion company income tax, N282.2 Value Add­ed Tax (VAT), N277.5 billion from Customs and N45.9 bil­lion as the government’s share from the Federation Account.
Other sources from which the government will fund the budget are N1.207 trillion in­dependent revenue, N6.549 bil­lion government share of actu­al balance in special accounts, N9.086 trillion as Federal Gov­ernment’s balances in special levies accounts and N50 bil­lion balance from the previous fiscal year.
Of the N6.866 trillion 2017 Budget, N1.765 trillion will be for capital expenditure and N2.563 trillion recurrent (non-debt expenditure) and N1.639 trillion for debt servicing.
Statutory transfers are allo­cated N370,697,683,756 while N1,639,171,596,716 is ear­marked for Debt Servicing.
Apparently to curb militan­cy in the Niger Delta region, Buhari raised the funding of the Presidential Amnesty Pro­gramme from N20 billion in 2016 to N65 billion for 2017.
From the MTEF literature, “the thrust of the fiscal year 2017 Budget is to restore the economy to a sustainable in­clusive path.
“Thirty-three percent of the projected aggregate revenue to fund the budget will come from oil sources, while the balance, 67 percent is derivable from non-oil sources, in consonance with the government’s renewed focus on diversification of its revenue base,” the document indicated.