According to the Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (2016-2018) sent by the president to the National Assembly, the Federal Government has spent N3.42tn out of the total N4.493tn spending approved in the 2015 budget in nine months.
The spending of the government in the last nine months have largely been on recurrent expenditures while capital expenditures have taken a reduction due to the shortfall in oil price and market shock according to the MTEF document.
According to the document: “Of the total appropriation of N4.49tn and a supplementary budget of N574.53bn for spending on security and emergency provision of subsidy claims, N3.42tn had been spent as of September for both recurrent and capital, with the shortfall in revenue inflow being made up by additional financing from borrowing and other sources.
“Recurrent expenditure has been on track. About 78.1 per cent, that is N1.77tn of the N2.23tn budgeted for the payment of salaries, pensions and overheads has been released, while debt service has been largely covered.”
The fall of the price of oil triggered a revenue shortfall for the government therefore while recurrent expenditure has been on track, capital spending has been lower than what was budgeted initially.
Meanwhile, between June and October, the country generated total revenue of N2.01tn from oil and non-oil sources according to statistics from the Ministry of Finance.
The figures were in a document containing the monthly distribution of funds made by the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee to the three tiers of government.
The dwindling price of oil has over the last 18 months impacted rather negatively on the income of the nation being the country’s major source of revenue.
A breakdown of the revenue per month showed that the highest revenue of N485.95bn was made in the month of June while the least revenue of N321.99bn was generated in the month of September.
N433.58bn, N369.14bn and N400.31bn were earned by the country in the months of July, August and October respectively.
The figures for the revenue for the month of November would be ratified in a few days by the FAAC as it has just been submitted.
It would be recalled that on different occasions, President Buhari has claimed that the country is broke.
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