Minister of Finance, Mr. Olusegun Aganga
The Federal Government has slashed the overheads of all its ministries, departments and agencies by 29 per cent for the 2011 fiscal year.
The move is aimed at reducing the high recurrent expenditure pattern in the country’s annual budgets, which is hugely disproportionate to the capital expenditure.
The Minister of Finance, Mr. Olusegun Aganga, who disclosed this on Thursday, during an interactive session with journalists in Abuja, also noted that 31 revenue generating agencies listed in the Fiscal Responsibility Act had submitted their annual budgets to the National Assembly.
He added, “Accordingly, the 2011 budget proposal reflects the following cuts; aggregate expenditure has been reduced by 18.1 per cent from N5.16tn in 2010 to N4.23tn in 2011.
“Despite absorbing the full impact of the increase in salaries by 53 per cent in July 2010, we have reduced non-debt recurrent expenditure by 7.02 per cent to N2.48tn. We have also cut overheads from N536bn to N381bn.”
The agencies include the Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Nigerian Ports Authority, Bureau of Public Enterprises, National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure, Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund, Corporate Affairs Commission, National Clearing and Forwarding Agency and Nigeria Unity Line.
Others are the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, Nigeria Shippers’ Council, National Maritime Authority, Raw Materials Research and Development Council, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, National Sugar Development Council, Nigeria Postal Service, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, Nigerian Mining Corporation and Nigerian Re-Insurance.
Also on the list are; Nigerdock Nigeria Plc, Securities and Exchange Commission, National Insurance Commission, Nigerian Re-Insurance Corporation, Nigerian Telecommunications Limited, National Automotive Council, Nigerian Tourism Development Board and Nigerian Communication Commission.
Others are the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, Nigerian Customs Service and Federal Inland Revenue Service.
The Senate had sent a letter to the Ministry of Finance, demanding the budgets of the 31 federal agencies before it could pass the 2011 budget of the Federal Government.
The minister also said that the Federal Government had reduced the level of domestic borrowing by 38 per cent to N865bn.
He, however, added that the government had secured a loan of $900m from the Export Import Bank of China.
The loan, which had a repayment period of 20 years, was secured at an interest rate of 2.5 per cent.
Our of the $900m, Aganga said that $500m would be utilised for the construction of the Abuja-Kaduna railway project, while the balance would be expended on the national security project.
One of our correspondents gathered on Thursday that the letter, which was addressed to the Minister of Finance, Mr. Oluegun Aganga, specifically demanded that the budgets and their details must be submitted before work would commence on the 2011 budget estimates by the relevant Senate committees.
The letter was signed by the Chairman of the Appropriation Committee, Senator Iyiola Omisore.
Source:http://www.punchng.com
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