Lagos State government is targeting to achieve about 90 percent performance in its 2021 budget by end of the fiscal year. The total budget size is N1.164 trillion – comprising N702.935 billion capital expenditure and N460.587 billion, recurrent expenditure.
Sam Egube, commissioner for economic planning and budget, who gave analysis of the budget on Thursday, believed that the 2021 budget would essentially follow the 2020 trend, which, despite the challenges of Covid-19 and EndSARS protest, recorded above 80 percent performance.
He put the total estimated revenue to fund the 2021 budget at N971.028 billion, while the deficit of N192.494 billion would be financed by a combination of external, internal loans and bond. According to the Egube, N15 billion has been earmarked in the budget for the rebuilding Lagos project/trust fund, in the aftermath of #EndSARS destruction witnessed in October 2020.
Egube put the total estimated internally generated revenue (IGR) for the fiscal year at N723.817 billion with N60.31 billion to be generated monthly. He said a significant percentage of the projected total IGR of N512 billion would be contributed by Lagos Internal Revenue Service, (LIRS).
“We shall achieve this by expanding the tax net by simplifying the tax process, improving our transaction taxes and the appropriate use of technology in addition to improving the work environment, training and tools of our tax administration personnel. This will improve the efficiency in operations of all revenue generating agencies.
“We believe that there are huge revenue generating opportunities in the state, including real estates, transportation sectors and our markets generally etc. We will continue to use data and intelligence to unravel revenue opportunities and leakages,” he said.
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Egube said the government would continue to maintain a relative conservative posture in its projection for federal transfers/receipts compared to annual run rate in 2020 in view of the production challenges within the Oil Sector by keeping our expectation at N175 billion.
On science and technology, Egube said the sum of N23.502 billion had been budgeted for building and upgrading of IT infrastructure statewide, e-GIS land automation system, single billing system and ease of tax payment, levies and other revenue enhancement initiatives.
“This administration will in addition deliver a 3000km metro-broadband fiber infrastructure around the state through an ongoing PPP initiative.
Furthermore, we will continue to invest in the Lagos State resident registration initiative in conjunction with NIMC to gather useful resident data and information for planning purposes.”
Speaking further, he said: “2021 is indeed a year of rekindled hope with the recent global and national events such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the EndSARS protests, and the general feeling and demand of our people for an inclusive governance, equitable quality of life and consistent economic growth.
“The objectives of our 2021 budget remain to aggressively develop and maintain our infrastructure, create employment, enhance food security, improve civic participation, inclusion and cooperation in governance.
“The budget is to invest in human capital development, that is education and healthcare; deploy functional technology in public services; and improve capacity to collect due revenues as efficiently as possible,´´ he said.
The commissioner said that the budget would attract investments through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs), improve the healthcare systems, environment, youth engagement, empowerment and rebuild Lagos.
The Lagos 2021 budget tagged “Budget of Rekindled Hope´´ was presented to the Lagos State House of Assembly for consideration and on November 10, 2020.
It was subsequently passed on December 29, 2020 by the State House of Assembly and signed into law by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu on December 31, 2020.
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