Assembly refers Lagos 2020 budget proposal to committee level

News Agency Of Nigeria

November 18, 2019 10:23 PM

The Lagos State House of Assembly has referred the state’s 2020 proposed budget to the committee stage after it scaled through second reading during plenary on Monday.

Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu while presenting proposed Year 2020 Budget to the State House of Assembly on Friday, Nov. 8, 2019. [NAN]

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports the Appropriation Bill was read for the second time by the Clerk of the House, Mr Azeez Sanni.

Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu had on Nov. 8 presented the 2020 proposed budget of N1.168 trillion to the State House of Assembly.

Sanwo-Olu noted that the capital expenditure amounted to N723.75 billion while the recurrent expenditure is N444.81 billion, giving a 62:38 capital to recurrent ratio.

Commenting, Mr Fatai Mojeed, representing Ibeju Lekki 1, said the proposed revenue was achieveable as the state was yet to tap revenue from several areas of informal sector.

Mojeed, who spoke on the content of the budget extensively, pointed out various sectors which the budget would touch for the betterment of the people.

He stated that it would be appropriate for the state to invest heavily on public transportation to be able to cater for the transport need of the people.

Also commenting, Mr Rotimi Olowo, representing Somolu 1, said that the budget estimate was overambitious, based on its revenue target which might not be achievable.

Olowo added that there was need to re-integrate the various sectors for better service delivery, saying that it would further enhance the economy.

He warned the state government not to overtax the people because it wanted to meet revenue target by various agencies and MDAs.

Olowo said that the current economic situation should be put into consideration while they go about ensuring achieving their revenue targets.

“The immediate past administration also presented an overambitious budget last year and it failed to achieve its purpose and was poorly implemented at the end of the day.

“I want this administration to avoid such mistake,” he said.

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Also, Mr Jude Idimogwu, representing Oshodi/Isolo 2, in his comment, called on the MDAs to come and explain to the House on how they would achieve their revenue targets.

Idimogwu said the figures in the budget were projections but that they should be realistic figures.

“The MDAs have jacked up their revenue targets, they need to come to tell us how they would realise these projections,” said Idimogwu.

After extensive deliberation by members, the Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa, referred the budget to both the House Committee on Economic Planning and Finance and report back in six weeks time.

News Agency Of Nigeria

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