A passionate appeal has been made to the National Assembly to work hard and ensure that 30 per cent of the 2016 budgetary provision is committed to capital projects.

The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udo Udoma, made the appeal on Wednesday when his ministry appeared before the joint Houses of the National Assembly (NASS) to defend its 2016 budget proposals.

He cautioned against a repeat of the 2015 budgetary mistake of committing only 10 per cent to that component.

While justifying his appeal, the Minister said: “We are in a challenging time (and) we want to use the 2016 budget as solutions to our economic problems, especially the 30 per cent capital allocation component in the budget.

“We want to move from the past administration’s faulty traditional ways of managing our economy without development strides.”

Responding on the fate of 2016 budget in the face of present fall in oil prices, Udoma said that, “We are working hard to expand fully, the nation’s revenues base away from oil.

“Government has set achievable targets to all revenues generating agencies (and) we must collect all revenues that are due and increase tax coverage areas. We have set Treasury Single Account that is blocking corruption loopholes and checking revenue leakages.”

The Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, also shared her view on increase in capital budget allocation.

She explained that “a reasonable and sizeable increase in capital allocation for improvement and provision of key infrastructure is required to reflate the economy and help the productive sector to grow our economy, especially the small scale enterprises.”

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Budget, Planning and Economic Affairs, Senator Rabi’u Kwankwaso, had earlier promised that his committee would do justice to the budget.

The lawmaker also stressed that they would ensure that every Naira budgeted would be utilised for the benefit of all Nigerians. (Channels TV)

•Photo shows Udo Udoma.

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