Akeredolu signs 2020 budget into law

Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State, on Tuesday, signed the 2020 budget of N187.8 billion into law.

The budget which was tagged ‘Budget of Growth’ has the aggregate expenditures of N187.858m with the sums of N82.700 billion and N80.470 billion representing 44.1 per cent and 42.7 per cent for Recurrent Expenditure and Capital Development respectively.

Speaking while signing the appropriation bill into law, the governor said N10.508 billion representing 5.6 per cent will be used for debt servicing, N14,180 billion representing 7.6 per cent for Statutory Transfers to Ondo State Oil Producing Area Development Commission (OSOPADEC), Ondo State Internal Revenue Service (ODIRS) and 10% share of Independent Revenue to Joint Account and Allocation Committee (JAAC) of Local Governments in the State.

The governor explained that due to the reduction in the Federal Allocation, his administration will further look inwards in the area of tax payment towards funding the budget.

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He said: “One of the key challenges to budget implementation is unavailability and inadequacy of required funds.

“This is as a result of the recurring dwindling Ondo State’s share of the Federation Account. This is occasioned by a fall in oil revenue which incidentally, and regrettably too, provides over 80% of the country’s revenue receipts.

“The Independent Revenue, even though has increased substantially since the inception of our administration, has not grown to the level of delivering the State from depending on Federal Transfers.

“In view of the current state of finance, the responsibility of implementing the laudable projects as encapsulated in this budget rests on all of us. We have to assure you that we have designed many ingenious and innocuous ways of bringing in more prospective payers into the tax net.

“I, therefore, solicit the voluntary co-operation of all residents in the State with the staff of Ondo State Internal Revenue Service and the different revenue generation agencies in the State as they would be coming to request payment of various statutory taxes and levies.”

While commending the members of the Ondo State House of Assembly for the timely scrutiny of the bill, Governor Akeredolu urged the necessary stakeholders to join hands with his administration towards the implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of the budget.