The Ondo state acting governor, Hon Lucky Aiyedatiwa, has presented the proposed N384.533 billion 2024 budget to the State House of Assembly.
A breakdown of the proposed budget, christened the “Budget of Economic Resilience,” showed that N212,014,859,647.00 was budgeted as capital expenditure and N172,518,140,353.00 for recurrent expenditure.
The infrastructural development sector, according to Aiyedatiwa, which took the lion’s share of the budget proposal, has N 95,482,176,340.36, representing 24.8% of the entire budget proposal.
Aiyedatiwa, while speaking at the official presentation of the document before the Speaker, Rt Hon Olamide Oladiji, said,” This is so because it is the sector that will stimulate the economy in the next fiscal year.
He gave the breakdown of the revenue to include: “Statutory Allocation: N45,367,453,580; Independent Revenue: N33,039,332,950; Value Added Tax: N30,301,829,040; Mineral Derivations: N30,524,211,875.
“Other FAAC/Excess Crude Revenue: N100,439,986,003, Grants: N43,700,000,000, Other Capital Receipts: N25,100,000,000, Financing: N76,060,186,552.
The acting governor said that “the current national and global economic realities point to a reason why we must consciously and programmatically re-arrange our fiscal priorities to target the growth drivers of our economy to quickly fix and reflate the economy and keep it afloat.
“We are aware of the negative impacts of fuel subsidy removal and the floating exchange rate on people.
“All these are put into consideration while projecting expenditures in this budget.
“We have made a reasonable increase in the personnel estimates to cover the imminent wage increase for workers. We will also continue to roll out palliative measures to cushion the effects of the fuel subsidy removal.
A sectoral breakdown of the budget showed that the Administration of Justice got N16,389,110,486.12, representing
4.3%, Agricultural Development, N31,816,008,874.01, 8.3%, EducationN47,729,164,261.85, 12.4%, Environment and Sewage Management N8,551,879,882.87, 2.2%.
Others include general administration, N 32,574,349,199.07, 8.5%, Health N29,809,134,375.97, 7.8%, Information N2,228,802,993.29, 0.6%, Legislative Administration N6,472,161,659.19, 1.7%, Public Finance N82,413,990,850.80,21.4%; Regional Development N12,646,995,272.10, 3.3%,Community Development N14,465,344,834.76,3.8% and Trade and trade and industry, N 3,953,880,969.6%.
The Speaker, Rt Hon Olamide Oladiji, promised that the budget would be thoroughly screened and ensure its passage.
Vanguard
