Abia State governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, has presented his 2016 budget proposal of N96.7 billion to the state house of assembly members which he tagged “ The Budget of Restoration Through Enterprise,” which he said was anchored on the International Public Sector Accounting Standard ( IPSAS).

The Governor explained that the budget, which looks at projections for year 2016 to 2018, “means that the fiscal management of our administration would be strictly guided by the principle of international best practices where prudent utilisation of resources remains the prevailing norm”.

The budget proposal is 22.8 per cent lower than that of 2015, which had an outlay of N127.5 billion .
In the proposed budget, N37.8 billion was earmarked for capital vote while N 58.9 billion would go for recurrent expenditures.

The Governor said that the expenditure plan was based on the resolve of his administration to build on the gains of previous administrations and widen the window of support from the international community.

He said: “It is our avowed resolve to improve on our internally generated revenue efforts with a view to making the economy of the state more self-reliant and in doing this, we do not intend to compound the problem of the good people of the state with unnecessary tax burden. We intend to generate more revenue internally this year at a level more than 30 per cent of what was the actual accrual in 2015.
“The estimated 2016 budget is based on expected revenue from FAAC and VAT sources, complimented by the projections of the state’s expected cash flow from Independent Revenues, Aids and Grants, Loans and other sources,” adding that during the planned period, “we propose to ensure that funding gaps will be reduced through robust activities under public private partnership and donor agreements”

According to the governor, the objective of the 2016 budget is predicated on realism of actual inflow of all revenues to the state and driven by what he called five pillars, namely agriculture, health, education, commerce and industry , oil and gas.