Ortom presents N178b 2018 budget to Benue Assembly

Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State has presented a budget of N178, 377,811,608.00 billion to the state House of Assembly for the 2018 fiscal year.

The 2018 budget is about N5 billion lesser than the 2017 budget of N183,368,780,499.00 Governor Ortom presented to the House of Assembly last year.

Christened a Budget of Rural Transformation and Consolidation, the Governor noted that the budget was estimated based on the assumption that the revenue sharing formula would improve with respect to the Statutory Allocation and Value Added Tax (VAT) as well as continued institutional strengthening of internally generated revenue collection in the State in collaboration with the Local Government Councils.

Other assumptions, according to the governor include, “that there would be a total blockage of all leakages in internal revenue generation by MDAs and remitting of same into Government Treasury Single Account and there would be continuation of the financial management reforms embarked upon with the implementation of the Fiscal Sustainability Plan.”

He also assumed that the political and economic climate of Nigeria and particularly of Benue State shall remain stable with herdsmen and farmers clashes as well as other communal clashes eliminated during fiscal year 2018 even as he hopes that the exchange rate of the naira ($305.00) and the benchmark of oil price ($45.00) as proposed by the Federal Government is attained and sustained.

Responding, Speaker of the Assembly, Terkimbi Ikyange assured the governor that the lawmakers would immediately commence work on the budget to ensure a speedy passage soon.