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Traders threaten to sue FG over ‘lopsided’ 2015 budget

By Itunu Ajayi, Abuja
03 February 2015   |   1:37 pm
CITING the poor preparation of the 2015 Budget, the National Association of Nigerian Traders (NANTS) has threatened a legal suit against the Federal Government  for the document not been “a true reflection of the present situation in Nigeria and that things are shrouded in secrecy.”    Its president, Ken Ukaoha, while reviewing the appropriation bill…

CITING the poor preparation of the 2015 Budget, the National Association of Nigerian Traders (NANTS) has threatened a legal suit against the Federal Government  for the document not been “a true reflection of the present situation in Nigeria and that things are shrouded in secrecy.” 

  Its president, Ken Ukaoha, while reviewing the appropriation bill on Monday in Abuja, said “Budget is a legal document and therefore is sacrosanct. I think that on that basis, we want to see how we can go to the court and have them make some declarations or pronouncements on the budget. What that will do is to deter other people from continuing to short-change Nigerians any further.”

He said that the situation is further compounded by the fact that the parliamentarians were not going to have sufficient time to look in-depth into the estimates owing to electioneering and campaigns for votes.

  NANTS specifically went hard on the #10 billion vote for the  Ministry of Trade and Investment and the Departments, Agencies and organisations under it.

“This means that in a total budget of #4.357 trillion for 2015 fiscal year, Trade and Investment got only 0.23 per cent. Further analysis shows that out of the proposed sum for the sector, only three million amounting to 2.94 per cent is for capital expenditure, while N9.892 billion is for recurrent expenditure, representing 97.06 per cent.

“The recurrent budget is further divided between personnel cost and overhead cost at N8.052 billion or 78.99 per cent of the total budget is for the personnel while N1.840 billion or 8.05 per cent is for the overhead cost,”Ukaoha added.

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