A little more detail, but we shall see. What I don't get is how a government incurs deficit on a budget that is less than 50% implemented from year to year. Fuzzy Accounting that is how!!! Senate approves FG’s request for $1.5bn loan on infrastructure .
Wednesday, 22 December 2010 00:00 Kehinde Akintola .David Mark, President, Senate
.•Begins debate on N4.2trn 2011 budget proposal
The Senate yesterday approved President Goodluck Jonathan’s request to borrow $1.537 billion out of the $3.702 billion from development partners, for provision of infrastructure in the country.
During the debate on the N4.226 trillion budget proposal presented by Jonathan to the joint session of the National Assembly, some of the Senators expressed concern over the poor budget implementation by various ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).
From the recurrent (non-debt) expenditure, the Education sector gets the lion’s share of the 2011 budget with N304,392,631,774; Police Affairs receives N293,569,995,125; Defence/MOD/Army/Air Force/Navy, N288,675,027,680; Health, N202,338,852,916; Interior, N152,310,965,961; while the Office of the Secretary to the government gets N57,604,822,199.
The Office of the National Security Adviser gets N50,860,044,639; Youth Development, N44,208,603,401; Foreign and Intergovernmental Affairs, N38,992,135,003; Petroleum Resources, N38,489,462,056; Agriculture and Rural Development, N34,063,326,510; Information and Communication, N27,021,995,211; Works, N26,684,115,362; Science & Technology, N22,460,277,443; while Justice gets N19,414,987,811.
From the N108,030,573,962 proposed for the National Assembly, the House of Representatives is to get N46,215,108,931; Senate, N29,041,279,068; General Service Office, N13,960,147,537; National Assembly Office, N9,591,065,919; Legislative Aides, N7,728,304,827; National Assembly Service Commission, N1,227,455,661; Senate Committee on Public Accounts, N128,261,769, even as the House Committee on Public Accounts get N138,950,249.
INEC gets N38,278,955,577; Mines & Steel Development, N11,512,637,069;
Ministry of Environment, N12,580,318,277; Culture and NOA, N17,216,793,821; National Planning Commission, N10,696,143,045; Aviation, N6,414,115,291; Lands and Housing, N3,555,726,596; Transport, N7,050,173,566; Labour and Productivity, N8,150,616,175; Commerce & Industry, N10,351,160,220; while the Ministry of Finance gets N12,081,460,230.
The lawmakers, during the debate, expressed concern over the increasing domestic debt from N11 trillion to N20 trillion in 2009, as well as the difference between the oil benchmark price as contained in the medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF) presented by Jonathan last week and the budget proposal.
Ahmed Markafi, chairman, Senate Committee on Finance who presented the interim report of the joint committee on finance and national planning, economic affairs and poverty alleviation, explained that the committee could not consider the sum of $1 billion from the People’s Republic of China for Abuja Light Railway and Lagos-Ibadan Railway Modernisation projects because its terms and conditions are currently under negotiation.
The amount approved include $152.2 million for the Economic and Power Sector Reform Programme; $900 million Export/Import Bank of China for Abuja–Kaduna Railway Gauge line/National Security; $315 million World Bank concessionary loan for Public Private partnership (PPP) project and $170 million French Development Agency (FDA) for National Electricity and Gas Improvement Project (NEGIP).
According to the report, the Federal Government already released the sum of N19.4 billion counterpart funding for the execution of the Abuja-Kaduna Railway Gauge line with a completion period of year 2010 to 2013.
The committee was unable to consider the request by some state governments, as the Federal Ministry of Finance failed to provide information on the breakdown of the loan requested by the state as provided by Section 42(1) of the Fiscal Responsibility Act.
In its request, the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) explained that $200 million is to be set aside for infrastructure financing to create a long-term finance market, out of which $150 million is for lending to viable projects sponsors/concessionaires for 15 to 25 years; while $50 million will be channelled to viability gap fund (VGF) as upfront capital projects.
It also requested for the sum of $115 million, out of which $83 million is for provision of technical assistance, transaction advisory services; while $32 million is for capacity building for 14 critical ministries, departments and agencies for 27 concessions considered priority projects.
Ike Ekweremadu, deputy senate president, after the adoption of the interim report on the external borrowing, noted that the loan facility was aimed at helping the country to facilitate infrastructural development.
The Senate, during the Tuesday plenary session, urged the Federal Government to immortalise late Pa Anthony Enahoro by naming a national monument in his honour.
http://www.businessdayonline.com/NG/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=16872:senate-approves-fgs-request-for-15bn-loan-on-infrastructure&catid=171:national&Itemid=617 |
