EbonyHerald Stores Ebony Herald News24
Related Articles
Dr. Olusegun Vincent, Associate Professor of Taxation and Finance Pan- African University, Lagos State, has lent his voice to the 2024 appropriation budget presented to the National Assembly by President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday, saying some of the assumptions are attainable while others may be far fetched going by determining factors.
Speaking on the projection of N750 to a US dollar in the 2024 budget, he said that this may be apt as it is skeptical.
Sharing his perspectives, the fellow of chatared institute of accountants of Nigeria, ICAN said some of the assumption are apt while some are sceptical.
He argued that the N750 to a US dollar projected in the appropriation may not be achievable if corruption remains unchecked in the system.
The Chartered Accountant, said some of the assumptions in the budget presented by President Tinubu may be punctured based on the fact that 50 per cent of the budget goes into padding, which he alleged often go into additional money to be shared,and may impact highly on foreign exchange.
According to the Don, the 2024 appropriation budget running into 27.5 trillion, will require measures to avoid corruption capable of overrunning the country’s foreign exchange.
Dr. Vincent argued that the oil price benchmark for the 2024 is attainable by ramping up the production level and chasing away the bad guys responsible for oil theft.
On the current inflation rate already at 28 percent, he said that will require a lot of work to import goods at reasonable rates, noting that this too remains skeptical.
On debt burden which stands at N8.25 trillion debt servicing , Dr. Vincent said that the removal of subsidy should ordinarily bring down deficit financing, while applauding the non-debt recurrent of N9.92 trillion estimate as commendable.
But he cautioned that this could only succeed without extra-budgetary supplements which often is an indication of poor planning by the government.
He was quick to also observe that capital projects could be at risk whereby a chunk of the federal government revenues go into debt servicing.
On the expected Gross Domestic Products, GDP, growth at 3.8 percent, he said that the projection remains ambitious and yet attainable with bank sufficient capitalization as well.
He commended the current executive cabinet for their efforts to bring down the budget deficit from what it used to be in the past, noting that this will ensure a downward trend.
The associate professor stated that threats around crude productions in the country may threaten production, adding that more needed be done on security to guarantee high production level.
On budget padding, Dr. Vincent said that the menace of over invoicing deprived the country of good living.He pointed out that a project meant to be executed for 2 million dollars could be inflated to several millions of dollars.
Also speaking on the sideline of the civil society contributions to the budget, Dr. Sani Shinkafi, the Executive Director, Patriots for Advancement of Peace
and Social Development,
said that with emphasis of the current administration on micro economic stability, Nigeria has hope in the 2024 fiscal year.
But, he expressed regrets that civil society’s hands are tied in terms of fiscal responsibility in the budget. For instance, alleged that budget padding was a collaboration between departments, agencies, parastatals.
He opined that the trend can be checked through civil society budget tracking and monitoring of the capital and recurring expenditures by the civil society.
Shinkafi also noted that unnecessary spending on foreign trips and seminars were part of the problem.
