The Federal Government has told the Senate that it may return to the National Assembly with a revised 2024 Appropriation Bill of N27.5 trillion if the revenue performance improves in the coming months.
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of Economy, Mr. Wale Edun, disclosed this on Monday in Abuja when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Finance for budget defence.
He said the government was optimistic that the revenue situation would improve as a result of the ongoing fiscal policy and tax reform initiatives, as well as the digitalization and efficiency in collection.
He said the government would seek the approval of the President and the National Assembly to appropriate the extra revenue if the revenue-to-debt ratio improves.
He said: “The revenue performance was encouraging, and it is expected to continue to be encouraging. There is a fiscal policy and tax reform committee which is already at work. It is meant to provide fundamental change together with digitalization, and greater efficiency in collection because it is revenue to debt that can allow us to even increase this budget.
“If we have a solid revenue performance, we will come back and I am sure Mr. President will authorise the process to return to the National Assembly to appropriate extra revenue. That is a situation we are all looking forward.”
Recall that President Bola Tinubu had presented a N27.5 trillion 2024 Appropriation Bill to the National Assembly penultimate Wednesday, based on the revised 2024-2026 Medium Term Expenditure Framework, MTEF, and Fiscal Strategy Paper, FSP.
The President had also announced his administration’s plan to grow the economy by a minimum of 3.76 percent, above the forecasted world average.
The Finance Minister also said the government was looking at how to speed up the procurement process to increase capital spending in the 2024 budget.
He said the actual budget performance as of the third quarter of the year, which was September, showed that expenditure was 32 percent below the budget estimate, while revenue was five percent up.
He said debt service was up by 18 percent due to the depreciation of the currency and the foreign debt of about $46 billion outstanding.
He said capital expenditure performed below budget quite significantly, adding that the government was looking at ways to address the issue of the procurement process and speed up capital spending.
He said: “In terms of the overall balance of the budget, the fiscal deficit is expected to come down from N13.7 trillion to N9.2 trillion, and importantly, the deficit, the amount of the budget to be funded by borrowing is down from 6.1 percent to 3.9 percent of GDP and capital expenditure remains at 32 percent, so that is the whole structure of the budget.”
