Abuja — DETAILS and revenue estimates for the 2010 budget inadvertently omitted in the budget proposal submitted to the National Assembly on Tuesday were yesterday circulated to Senators.

The revenue estimates showing a total collection of N6.040 trillion accruable from oil and non-oil sources showed oil revenue yielding N4.293 trillion of the amount with non-oil revenue expected to yield N2.899 trillion.

President Umaru Yar'Adua's seat unoccupied as Vice President Goodluck Jonathan presides over the weekly meeting of the Federal Executive Council at the Council Chambers, State House, Abuja, yesterday. Photo: Abayomi Adeshida.

However, Senators have predicted doom for the budget based on the woeful performance of previous budgets, while members of the House of Representatives lamented the low implentation of the 2009 budget.

The details obtained by Vanguard yesterday indicated that the N370 billion has been earmarked for the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, for the monitoring of the conventions and congresses of the political parties ahead of the 2011 general elections.

Of the N4.293 trillion expected from oil sources, N749.99 billion is the government's share of the cost of production, another N208.29 billion is earmarked for National Domestic Gas Development and another N2.66 billion is set aside for crude oil pre-export expenses leaving a balance of N3.332 billion as net oil revenue.

13 per cent of the outstanding balance amounting to N433.19 billion is set aside as derivation proceeds for oil producing states leaving a balance of N2.899 trillion as revenue to be shared by the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee, FAAC.

The estimates also show that the total receipts expected in the Federation account in 2010 would be N3.775 trillion with the Federal Government share of the FAAC being N1.83 trillion with the States getting N1.008 trillion while the 774 local governments in the country are to share N777.74 billion from the federation account.

The revenue estimates, according to the Minister of Finance, Mansur Muhtar, were inadvertently omitted from the budget proposal submitted to the National Assembly on Tuesday.

INEC under the budget estimates expects to spend N21.441 billion to prepare for the 2011 round of elections; N150 million to upgrade its web site and another N100 million to renovate the national headquarters of the commission.

INEC is also expecting spend N25 million in preparing a new electoral bill and N2.2 billion for the rehabilitation of six local government area offices in each of the thirty six states of the country and Abuja.

INEC also expects to spend N15.198 million in an electronic collation system and N160 million in the production of a national voters' register.

2010 budget: Senators predicts failure

Meantime, Senators yesterday repeatedly knocked the 2010 budget proposals of President Umaru Yar'Adua by expressing misgivings on the capacity of the Federal Government to carry out a successful implementation.

The Senators who spoke yesterday during the consideration of the budget hinged their misgivings on the woeful performance of previous budgets.

The Senators also listed corruption, lack of capacity, inefficiency and poor attitudes of civil servants as reasons why Nigerians will still be denied the full benefits of the 2010 budget.

They faulted the high profile of the recurrent expenditure over capital expenditure and the meagre allocation to the power sector, stressing that the 2010 appropriation may still not be able to transform Nigeria's economy.

Those who spoke are the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, Victor Ndoma-Egba, Smart Adeyemi, Olorunimbe Mamora, Patrick Osakwe, Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello, Uche Chuwkumerije and Ayim Udeh.

Senator Ekweremadu in his contribution shortly after the lead debate by the Senate Leader, Senator Teslim Folarin, faulted the inclusion of rents and telephone bills in the recurrent expenditure.

He said "Our budgetary provisions like rent subsidy, maintenance of vehicles, maintenance of furniture, residential/accommodation rent, water rate and telephone, I believe that with monetiaation, some of these items should be off our budget and these should be transferred to the capital side of our budget."

Senator Ndoma-Egba in his contribution lamented that Nigeria's budget has been theories and allocations without the corresponding result of sustainable development.

He said, "Theoretically, the 2010 budget is good. Year in, year out, we go through the tradition of debating and passing budget, but year in, year out, we failed to derive maximum benefits from the budget. The stories have been of failed budget.

"Do we have the capacity to implement? If we do not have the capacity to implement smaller budgets, do we have capacity to implement the bigger one? Again another reason for failed budget is the failure to respect the rule of law.

"Our budgets must deliver jobs, it must deliver security and it must deliver food."

Senator Adeyemi is his contribution said: "I find it difficult to accept a situation where recurrent expenditure is almost twice capital votes. A good budget must take into consideration the needs and aspirations of the people. The question the common man is asking is what happened to the 2009 budget? The situation where only 30 percent of the budget was implemented is not good enough.

"Let us address issues that affect the man on the street. Enough of these theories and allocations, we want power, jobs, security and peace. Let us explore other opportunities to fund our budgets. We can look at income tax and property tax.

Many people who own properties in Nigeria are not paying tax. Let us look at how to increase internally generated revenue."

Senator Mamora summing up the fears of the Senate said, "But my worry is that for too long, this administration has been engaged more in statements of intention than reality.

"There is no point stating intentions, people can only benefit from reality rather than intention of government. I am worried that the last year's budget size was N3 trillion. My worry is that if the administration has not demonstrated faithfulness in small things, how then can it implement a bigger one."

Chukwumerije lamented the lopsidedness of allocations in the budget.

He said "The low allocations to health, N162 billion and Labour, N7 billion along with low allocation to women N2.5 billion and youths, N46 billion do not portray the government as particularly obsessed with the goal of improving the lot of the underprivileged and the low-income in the society."

Reps angry at low implementation of 2009 budget

On their part, members of the House of Representatives expressed lamentations on the low implementation of the 2009 budget.

The Members while debating the budget before it went into second reading, yesterday, regretted that in spite of their monitoring of the executive arm of government, the 2009 budget performed below 50 per cent.

Deputy Speaker of the House, Alhaji Usman Nafada, who presided over the sitting said budget implementation is about improving the well-being of citizens.

"If we are able to achieve this, then our re-election as PDP members will be smooth," he said

"I want to blame poor implementation of budgets on Ministers because they execute only the projects that serve their personal interests.

"Ministers deliberately delay projects approved by the National Assembly only to rush back to us at the end of the year to request for virement in order to continue to fund their own projects", he said

"Look at the case of the Niger Delta Ministry which has not executed a single project in the region this year, in spite of the fact that the National Assembly appropriated about N50 billion to it in 2009", he lamented.

"The money is still lying idle at the Central Bank of Nigeria. There are saboteurs who do not want the Niger Delta to develop", he said.

allafrica