Bala Abdulkadri Mohammed, Bauchi State Governor has on Wednesday presented N213 billion budget proposal for the 2021 fiscal year to the House of Assembly for consideration.
Despite dwindling revenue streams, the 2021 proposal was N46 billion higher than the 2020 budget which was tagged “Budget of Renewal of hope.”
The 2021 budget tagged, “Budget of Consolidation”, houses N93,197,307,970 billion, representing 44 per cent as recurrent expenditure while N120,717,251458 billion which represents 56 per cent was pegged as capital expenditures.
The new proposal according to the Governor was premised on the national oil production benchmark as well as a consolidated internally generated revenue stream.
Governor Mohammed opined that the budget is to be financed by recurrent revenue estimates of N180 billion, and capital receipts of N105 billion.
He said COVID-19 pandemic has forced the state government to review downward, the 2020 budget to N129 billion due to dwindling revenue associated with the novel virus.
“Despite these daunting challenges, we were able to record moderate success in the implementation of the 2020 budget. Out of the budgeted revenue, included excess crude of 61 billion, only the sum of 34 billion was realized as at 30th September 2020”
“In the same vein, value added tax revenue recorded a performance of N13 billion against the budgeted figure of N18 billion.
This is a clear indication of budget performance in the midst of budget uncertainty and challenges”, the governor said during the presentation.
The Speaker of the Bauchi House of Assembly, Honourable Suleiman Abubakar in a reaction said the assembly will scrutinize the proposal in line with its constitutional mandate.
He said the house has within the year 2020 passed 20 bills, made 44 motions, 40 resolutions, listened to 28 petitions, received 16 Committee reports and 18 messages from the governor.
The Speaker said that for the first time in the history of the house, the Public Account Committee has invited so many MDAs with regards to the Annual Auditor General reports.
