Collage photo of Governor Udom Emmanuel and Mr. Tijah Bolton-Akpan, Executive Director, Policy Alert.
By Abasifreke Effiong
Policy Alert, a civil society organisation working on fiscal and ecological justice in the Niger Delta, says it has spotted “conspicuous gaps” in the 2022 budget speech presented by Akwa Ibom State Governor, Mr. Udom Emmanuel.
The Governor presented a fiscal estimates of N582.115 billion for year 2022 to the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly on Monday 25th October.
The Dune reported that 8.62% of the estimates for the year 2022 would be spent on debt servicing even as the House of Assembly approved a new loan of N18.74 billion few minutes before receiving next year’s estimate from the Governor.
Policy Alert says Governor Emmanuel’s 2022 budget speech was silent on expected revenue and wants it to come “clear on how it intends to fund the 2022 budget.”
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Executive Director of Policy Alert, Tijah Bolton-Akpan, in a statement noted that there were conspicuous gaps in the budget speech, especially in the area of recurrent revenue.
“A budget proposal is not complete until it presents a clear picture of the spending plan and expected revenue.”
“The budget speech only listed expected sources for capital receipts…[it did] not provide the recurrent revenue estimates, which could have completed the picture of how the government plans to fund the budget.”
“For instance, it is unclear what the state is expecting from statutory allocation in 2022. What is the State planning to generate as internally generated revenue? What does the State project to get from 13 percent derivation? These important funding questions are unanswered in the budget speech and the state government has to come clear on these basics.”
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Bolton-Akpan also said the capital receipt estimates especially refunds from federal government and federal account proposed by the State government are “ambitious” and “risky”.
“Betting N137.9billion or 23.6 percent of the total budget sum on a shaky revenue source is risky for the fiscal health of the state. Much of this amount is premised on recent court awards which may or may not materialise in the course of the fiscal year.”
The statement, however lauded the state government on the capital-recurrent ratio, noting that with capital expenditure taking 55.3 percent of the total budget outlay, there is reason for optimism that the state government will focus more on people-oriented developmental projects than on running the government.
The 2022 estimates christened “Budget of redefining standards” have capital outlay of N321.964 billion while recurrent expenditure is pegged at N260.151 billion.
