President Muhammadu Buhari has today issued a strong warning to revenue-generating agencies against defaulting to meet targets. Buhari issued this warning shortly after he signed the N13.588 trillion 2021 Appropriation Bill and Finance into law, encouraging the authorities to work hard to meet their target.
The Nigerian leader said, “Relevant Agencies are to ensure the realization of our crude oil production and export targets. Heads of defaulting Agencies are hereby warned that they will be severely sanctioned. I also appeal to our fellow citizens and the business community, at large, to fulfill their tax obligations promptly,”
The President expressed delight that despite challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic in the preceding year 2020, it has passed the expected threshold.
Buhari disclosed that as of December 2020 his administration has already released about N1.748 trillion out of the N1.962 trillion budgeted for critical capital projects which conveniently stand at 89.1 percent of the total sum budgeted.
According to him, the overall performance of the year 2020 budget stands at 97.7 percent executed which is an impressive performance. This is a credit to the administration and the legislature in revert the countries budget back to January to December timeline, he said.
He applauded the lawmakers for taking their time to work on the budget at the expected timeline.
The President added that the timely passage of the 2021 budget before the commencement of the physical year is a confirmation of the resolve to maintain a predictable January to December fiscal year.
The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed is expected to provide further details on the 2020 budget performance in due course.
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