The wide gap existing between revenue expectation and the actual accruable funds to the Akwa Ibom government may threaten the realisation of its N465 billion budget for the fiscal year 2017, checks have revealed.
Akwa Ibom proposed a total budgetary outlay of N365.251 for the 2017 fiscal year as against N423 billion in 2016.
According to checks, as at September, 2016, the actual recurrent revenue collected was N109.829 billion amounting to 37 percent of the budget.
The budget which has as its main thrust “the actualisation of the economic base of the state through industrialisation and sustainable public private sector initiative that will open up opportunities for growth and improved standard of living has identified “building a strong fiscal regime through the expansion of the state’s revenue base” as one its implementation strategies.
But analysts said the achievement of the laudable objectives of the 2017 budget might be hampered by lack of funds.
From its budget estimate, while N171.295 billion is for recurrent expenditure, N193.956 billion is for capital receipts and expenditure.
For its projected recurrent revenue of N175 billion in 2017, the state government hopes to receive N120 billion as derivation fund, N15 billion as statutory allocation and N10 billion as Value Added Tax (VAT) and N27.684 billion as Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) among others.
But with the dwindling revenue as a result of a fall in the price of oil and the non payment of derivation fund to the state government, observers say achieving the target of N120 billion from derivation fund will be an uphill task, a development that might affect the overall goal of the budget.
According to Usorosh Akpanusoh, chairman, house of assembly committee on appropriation and finance, ministries and departments should intensify efforts aimed at increasing their Internally General Revenue (IGR) to shore up the revenue base of the state government.
Akpanusoh who spoke at inspecting facilities at the Ibom airport which is undertaking the construction of a second runway, he said with the revenue generation machinery, the airport should be able to meet its financial obligations.
He urged the commissioner for housing and special duties, Akan Okon who accompanied him during the inspection to bring his wealth of experience to bear in the realisation of the revenues from the airport.
Further checks however showed that the state government received a total of N14.5 billion from the federal government as its share of the Paris club refund in which it has notified the state assembly for deployment in the funding of the budget.
In the area of science and technology, the state government plans to establish a research and development laboratory workshop, provide human resources in science, engineering and technology and the establish a save city project to assist in crime detection in this year’s budget.
