The expected revenue of the federal government to finance the 2016 budget fell short by N1.064 trillion as at June 2016.
This was made known in the 2017 to 2019 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy presented to the public at a Stakeholders Consultative Forum held in Abuja.
The President, Muhammadu Buhari, on May 6, 2016, signed into law the budget of N6.060trn for the year with approved borrowing of N1.819trn.
The Framework presented by the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, revealed that the federal government augmented the 55.2 percent shortfall in revenue as at June by domestic borrowing amounting to N600bn.
The amount borrowed to finance the budget, as at June, represented about 33 percent of the approved borrowing of N1.819trn meant to finance the total deficit of the budget.
A breakdown of the revenue shortfalls between February and June showed that the federal government’s net share of the federation account allocation dropped by N397.280bn against what was projected in the budget while the federal government’s generated internal revenue also dropped by N646.320bn from what was budgeted.
On the implementation of the budget as at June, the minister disclosed that a total of N2.123trn has been disbursed with recurrent expenditure “largely covered.”
He disclosed that N253bn has been released to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to invest in critical infrastructure projects as at July 18.
“Government’s focus is to ensure quality of expenditure,” he said. “Capital releases are based on priorities, MDAs’ performance as well as value-addition to the immediate needs of the economy.”
The MTEF analysed by the Daily Trust showed that the federal government had considered a conservative oil price benchmark of $42.5 per barrel for 2017, $45 per barrel in 2018 and $50 per barrel in 2019.
The Framework projected oil production at 2.2mbpd in 2017, 2.3mbpd in 2018 and 2.4mbpd in 2019 with the exchange rate stabilising at N290 per dollar for the period.
The Framework forecast a positive Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of 0.35 percent for 2016 which was expected to rise to 4.04 percent in 2019, averaging 3.77 percent during the MTEF period.
The minister said the 2017 budget will be submitted to NASS by October this year.
