The Federal Government has said that it would not consider the option of cutting down on capital projects in the proposed 2016 budget currently awaiting approval by the National Assembly.
Briefing newsmen after the monthly National Economic Council (NEC) meeting chaired by the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, yesterday, National Planning Minister, Senator Udo Udoma, said the government would find an ingenious way to finance the over N6 trillion budget at the face of the dwindling revenue accruals.
The minister added that the government had no plan to hike the Value Added Tax (VAT) and Corporate Taxes in its bid to raise funds to finance the budget.
Udoma said “We expect about 20% increase in VAT collection, which is conservative in terms of our revenue projections. We are expecting much more than that. Occasionally, we try to be conservative.”
While intimating that the nation’s Excess Crude Accounts (ECA) now stands at $2.25 billion, he added that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and 17 other government agencies accused of generating funds in dollars but remitting in Naira would undergo forensic audit by KPMC and SIAO.
81 other revenue generating agencies are to equally undergo forensic audit.
He disclosed that the introduction of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) has taken care of some agencies like NNPC, NIMASA and NPA which generate funds in foreign currency and remit in naira.
He however added that the council reiterated FG’s policy that NNPC and other agencies must present their budgets for approval before spending in line with TSA.
Asked how the government intended to handle the budget, Udoma said “with reference to the budget, one thing we are determined not to do is to cut any of those capital projects because we need them to stimulate the economy. We are going to work with the National Assembly to see how we can get savings.