The Governor of Osun State, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has said that 2018 would be a year of consolidation and complementary to his administration’s achievements in the last seven years.
Aregbesola stated this on Thursday while presenting the 2018 fiscal year budget tagged ‘Budget of Enduring Legacy’ with a figure of N173, 980, 83,700 before the state House of Assembly.
Presenting the appropriation bill, Aregbesola said the budget was designed to consolidate on his achievements and leave an enduring legacy of the people of the state, adding that the budget was also to finally fulfill its six integral action plan.
According to the governor, the budget was billed to effectiveness, actualization and realization of the manifestoes of the All Progressives Congress, noting that the 2017 budget was 42.8 per cent implemented of paucity of fund.
Aregbesola said the 2018 budget is N27,347,336,027 higher than that of 2017, disclosing that the appropriation bill would be financed with the share of the state Federal Allocation, Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and other sources of income.
Education got 14.87 per cent while health sector has 2.5bn per cent of the budget.
He maintained that education is important and essential to his administration, hence his determination to reconstruct and rebuild the education sector, promote functional education at all levels in the state.
The governor said: “Our ultimate goal for the 2018 Budget is to ensure a continuous improvement in the welfare and standard of living of our people.
“This will be achieved by consolidating the previous achievements of this administration and do everything possible to recover the lost glory of the State.
“Thus, the 2018 budget has been carefully packaged to ensure the effective realization of our vision as encapsulated in our Six-Point Integral Action Plan.”
Aregbesola from the budget presentation put the summary of total arrears transferred to the Draft 2018 Budget as budget surplus/deficit N-28.6 billion, liabilities, N22 billion, salary arrears N-22.8 billion, Pension and gratuity, N-6.7 billion and capital arrears (dredging/flood control) N-2.3 billion totalling N-38.5 billion
Expected government share from FAAC, according to the budget is N27 billion forming 15.56%, Value Added Tax N8.8 billion (5.10%), excess crude account N77.7 billion (0.04%),other revenue from FAAC N5,052.6billion (2.90%), personal and corporate taxes are put at N25.1 billion (14.45%) and N9.7 billion (5.58%) respectively.
Other sources of income as proposed in the budget is Licences is N1.5 billion (0.92%), General fees N20.8 billion (11.99%), General. Earnings N3.6 billion (2.55%), rent on government buildings and rent on lands and others at N335.7 billion (0.19%) and N279 billion (0.16%).
Aregbesola said the total expected receipt was N151.9 billion (87.34%), other sourced fund to finance specific projects are internal source and external are N1.5 billion (0.86%) and external source N20.5 billion (11.80%) respectively.
Packaged by Rahman Salami
