Katsina State Government is to fund its 2023 budget with more than N81 billion in foreign and domestic loans, grants and aids.
Governor Aminu Masari had on Tuesday presented a budget estimate of more than N288 billion to the state House of Assembly for the 2023 fiscal year.
The estimate tagged Budget of Transition is more than N34 billion short of what the state had estimated to expend for the 2022 expenditure.
During the presentation, Masari said the estimate would be his last as he would be vacating office next year, and that the budget is to complete all ongoing projects by his administration.
However, speaking with newsmen at a press conference yesterday, permanent secretary of Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, Abdullahi Abubakar, said the state would be sourcing N81 billion in grants, loans and aids, to fund the budget.
Giving a breakdown, Abubakar said a total of N40 billion in foreign loans would be sourced, while another N8.9 billion in domestic loan would be sourced, to fund the budget.
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He said N23 billion in foreign aid, another N3.6 billion in domestic aid, and N7.1 billion in domestic grant, would be sourced to help fund the budget.
The permanent secretary said apart from federal allocation, the state had been able to raise revenue internally, but that some factors had hampered its effective collation.
According to him, government had been able to raise more than N10.6 billion internally from January to August this year, but the amount had fallen short of the N53.3 billion being targeted for the year.
He said non-implementation of new tax rates, and non-compliance with account extent rules and procedures on the part of revenue officers were some of the reasons for the shortfall.
He also said that the drop in statutory revenue, non-implementation of harmonized revenue law, and security situation in some parts of the state, as other reasons for the shortfall.
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