The Kaduna State Government says it is working towards presenting the state 2021 draft budget to the Executive Council for ratification in October.
The state’s Commissioner for Planning and Budget Commission, Mr Thomas Gyang, who disclosed this in an interview on Wednesday, in Kaduna, said that preparations for the 2021 to 2023 multi-year budget had already commenced.
He explained that the budget process had begun with the preparation of the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) which would inform the budget.
He said that the MTEF provided a tool for a multi-year fiscal planning and budget formulation aimed at enabling the state to set realistic fiscal targets and allocate resources to strategic priorities.
He said that in line with MTEF requirements, the state had on Tuesday begun revenue defense with revenue generating agencies via Zoom, to come up with the state’s revenue profile and fiscal target.
“It is no longer news that COVID-19 has negatively affected the global economy, forcing countries and sub-national states to begin to look inward by focusing more on Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).
“The defense by the revenue agencies before the Estimate Committee would enable us to discuss and share ideas on ways to improve revenue generation that we hope will largely fund the budget.
“The exercise will enable us to come up with the state’s revenue profile vis-à-vis internal and external grants, which at the moment were clouded with uncertainty because of COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our best chance is to improve IGR that will fund our budget. This is because we cannot budget with revenues that we do not have,” he said.
The commissioner said that as soon as the revenue profile was determine, a budget ceiling would be given to all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) that would inform their expenditure.
He said that the expenditure call circular would be sent to the MDAs in a month or two to prepare and defend their expenditure proposal based on the budget ceiling given to them.
He added that all expected expenditure by MDAs would be in line with priority areas in the State Development Plan.
“Hopefully, we should be able to conclude the process by October and send the draft to the Executive Council for vetting.
“Our desire is to have a realistic budget; a budget that can be funded given available financial resources,” Gyang said.
NAN reports that the MTEF is in line with the Fiscal Responsibility Law, which provides for prudent public expenditure, fiscal management, and discipline.
The goal is to ensure long term macroeconomic stability in the state.(NAN)
