Gov. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State on Tuesday presented budget proposal of N186.6 billion for the 2022 fiscal year to the State House of Assembly.
Presenting the budget tagged: “Budget of Sustained Growth and Consolidation” Ugwuanyi said the 2022 budget estimate was 9.9 per cent higher than the 2021 budget, which was N169.8b.
According to the governor, N71 billion of the total budget representing 38 per cent will go into the recurrent expenditure while N115b representing 62 per cent will be used to finance capital expenditure.
He noted that the proposed budget would be financed through Federal Allocation Account Committee (FAAC), Value Added Tax (VAT), Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and excess crude money.
Ugwuanyi explained that the 2022 budget was prepared in line with his administration’s vision to maintain higher budgetary allocation in capital expenditure.
The governor said that the capital expenditure would be channeled into the completion of all ongoing projects including construction of Oji River Township Stadium, construction of bridges, Nike Road, and Agbai Road among other projects.
On the performance of the 2021 budget, Ugwuanyi said the 2021 budget achieved 33.2 per cent success as at the end of the third quarter of the outgoing year.
He added that the state government generated N80.8b representing 73.4 per cent recurrent revenue as against N110b contained in the 2021 budget.
The governor, however, maintained that in spite of the shortfalls in the revenue generation, the state government was able to meet up its financial obligations and thanked people for their trust in his administration.
Receiving the budget, the Speaker of the House, Chief Edward Ubosi, assured the governor that the House would give speedy passage to the appropriation bill to maintain January-December budget circle.
The Speaker then directed Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to come for their budget defence next week to enable the lawmakers pass the budget before the end of the year. (NAN)
