Benue State House of Assembly yesterday passed a budget of N176.6 billion for the 2017 fiscal year.
The passage was sequel to the consideration of the report of its standing committee on Appropriation in the Committee of Supply, chaired by the Speaker, Mr. Terkimbi Ikyange.
Christened “Budget of Rural Transformation” the budget passed represents an increment of N12.7 billion over the N163.9 billion that was presented to the Assembly last year by Governor Samuel Ortom.
According to the chairman of the Appropriation Committee of the House, Barr. Adam Okloho, the increase is as a result of the non-inclusion of some ongoing projects by the Ministry of Finance and additional requests by MDAs for inclusion of some critical projects which were omitted in the proposed estimates.
Highlight of the budget shows that N66.7 billion is for recurrent expenditure, N109.9 billion is for capital expenditure, while deficit financing stands at N36.1 billion.
The House also directed the Finance ministry to as a matter of priority, make releases to MDAs as at when due to enable them carry out the implementation of their Capital Expenditure votes.