Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun, on Thursday, presented before the State House of Assembly 2018 budgetary proposal of N173,980,083,007 for consideration by the lawmakers.
Accompanied by his wife, Alhaja Sherifat Aregbesola, members of the State Executive Council, his Chief of Staff, Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola, the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Alhaji Moshood Adeoti, the Head of Service (HoS), Mr Oyebade Olowogboyega, among other top government top functionaries, Aregbesola said the 2018 fiscal budget was christened “Budget of Enduring Legacy” due to avowed commitment of his administration to providing conducive atmosphere for all and sundry.
Details of the budget, which is the last the governor would present indicated that the recurrent expenditure stands at N85 billion, while the capital expenditure amounted to N88 billion.
Besides, it was observed that the figures of 2018 budgetary proposal are higher by N27,347,336,027 than that of 2017, which stood at N146,632,746,980.00.
Giving the further breakdown of the statistics, Aregbesola said his government was expecting to fund the budget from its share of Federation Account N27 billion forming 15.56%, Value Added Tax (VAT), N8.8 billion (5.10%). Other sources of fund to power the budget are Excess crude account N77 million ), other revenue from FAAC N5,052.6billion (2.90%), personal and corporate taxes are put at N25.1 billion (14.45%) and N9.7 billion (5.58%) respectively,
Targeted funds from licences is N1.5 billion (0.92%), General fees N20.8 billion (11.99%), General. Earnings
N3.6 billion (2.55%), rent on government buildings and rent on lands and others at N335.7 million 0.19%) and N279 million (0.16%)
respectively.
Aregbesola hinted that other sources of funds are repayment, investment income, interest earned, reimbursement, domestic aids, foreign aids, domestic grant and foreign grants, adding that “our ultimate goal for the 2018 budget is to ensure a continuous improvement in the welfare and standard of living of our people.
He stated that “it will be achieved by consolidating the previous achievements of this administration and do everything possible to recover the lost glory of the state. Thus, the 2018 budget has been carefully packaged to ensure the effective realization of our vision as encapsulated in our Six-Point Integral Action Plan. It is important to intimate this August Assembly that the preparation of 2018 Budget has been very participatory. Relevant inputs were sourced and received from various stakeholders across the state in order to enhance the quality of the budget”.
In his speech before Aregbesola’s presentation, the Speaker, Osun House of Assembly, Hon. Najeem Folasayo Salam lauded the governor for passionate commitment to the collective interest and welfare of all through the implementation of programmes and projects, which have the direct and positive bearing on the people.
According to him: “We can learn from history, but we can also deceive ourselves when we selectively take evidence from the past to justify what we have made up our minds to do. Today, history is being made not because Governor Rauf Aregbesola is presenting the financial estimate for the 2018 fiscal year, but because he is appearing before this distinguished parliament for the last time on this kind of an exercise in this hallowed chamber. ”