by Lekan Olanrewaju

In news relating to the job she still holds, and not the one she didn’t get yesterday (as World Bank President), Nigerian Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy has declared that the growth collectible revenue estimated in 2012 budget was N9.692 trillion.

She made this announcement at the 2012 budget presentation in Abuja on Monday, where she stated that the figure was based on the production of 2.48 million barrels of oil per day.

“The 2012 budget has growth collectible revenues estimated at N9.692 trillion, based on bench mark oil production of 2.48 million barrel per day and benchmark oil price of 72 dollars per barrel.” she said.

“The benchmark oil price of 72 dollars per barrel per day was an increase from the original 70 dollars per barrel proposed by the Federal Government. This increase of two dollars per barrel by the National Assembly yielded an additional N98.4 billion.

“Out of which N50 billion was used to reduce the deficit and therefore domestic borrowing requirement while the balance was used to increase capital spending.

“Consequently, the total forecast revenue for the federal budget is N3.5 trillion with an oil component of 1.9 trillion and non-oil component of 1.6 trillion,’’

She said that the total expenditure approved in the 2012 budget consisted of the regular budgetary appropriation of N4.69 trillion and that the sum of N180 billion had been earmarked for programmes and projects under the Subsidy Re-investment and Empowerment programme (SURE).

She also stated that the personnel cost on the budget was N1.565 trillion, which represented 75 per cent of aggregate expenditure.

“This represents the several wage increases granted in recent times which leads to 93 per cent increase between 2009 and 2012.

“The rising wage bill is disturbing because it undermines our ability to invest in capital projects and when we talk about consolidation over the medium term, this is one of the areas we look at.

“We have statutory transfer of N372.6 billion, capital expenditure of N1.33 trillion, its shared as the percentage of aggregate expenditure increase from 25.6 per cent in 2011 to 28.5 per cent in 2012.”