By Correspondent in Minna.
Niger State House of Assembly (NSHA), has passed N60,725,185,827, 2021 budget for the 25 Local Government Areas of the state, after the presentation of report by the House Committee on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs.
Our Correspondent reports that the approved budget comprising; recurrent expenditure of, N47, 161,744,412 and capital expenditure estimated at N13,563,441,415,was passed during Tuesday’s plenary.
The Chairman, House Committee on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Hon. Shuaibu Liman Iya, while presenting the report to the House explained that out of the over N60 billion for the fiscal year, about N42 billion was for statutory allocation.
Further details of the budget also indicated that, over N3 billion is for Value Added Tax (VAT), about N4 billion for 10 per cent state allocation while over N1 billion is for Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).
Iya, however, said, due to the dwindling national economy resulting in the fall of allocations to all three tiers of government, many of the local government areas remained in deficit and could not even pay hundred percent salary.
The House Committee Chairman on Local Government, however, emphasised the need to ‘look inwards’ and strategize in order to improve not only the revenue base of the state but also create in-roads to maximum revenue generation.
