By Ezrel Tabiowo Abuja —
Senators and the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udo Udoma, yesterday disagreed over a plan by the federal government to roll over the 2017 national budget into next year.
Making the disclosure while appearing before the Senate Joint Committees on Finance and Appropriations, Udo Udoma said the decision was imperative given that the fi scal year was very short.
He further indicated that, about N1.7trillion capital budget for the 2017 fi scal year might not be released, noting that the government was implementing the 2016 budget up to June 2017 due to huge capital defi cit incurred in the budget.
Th e minister, while responding to questions from senators on how the government intended to achieve the hundred percent release of the N2.177tr capital vote in 2017, given that the year was already winding down, however, assured that the economy would not experience budget loss.
He said that the Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) had been instructed to roll over between 50 – 60 per cent of the 2017 projects to 2018, so that all projects that would not be executed before the end of this year, would be implemented in the coming budget year.
Speaking earlier, Chairman Senate Committee on Appropriation, Sen. Danjuma Goje said the two ministers were at the National Assembly to brief the committees as well as Nigerians on the implementation of the 2017 budget.
“It is very important, bearing in mind that the budget was passed by the National Assembly in May and was signed into lawby the then Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo on 6th June 2017.
“We are now four months into the implementation of the budget.
Nigerians need to know how far we have gone and what we are going to achieve, the successes.
“We have heard from the minister of budget and national planning that they intend to submit the 2018 budget this month.
By implication, if they bring it this month, they will expect the budget to be approved before the end of the year,” he said.
