The Delta Government has proposed the sum of N459.2 billion as budgetary figure for 2023 fiscal year.
The State Commissioner for Economic Planning, Mr Barry Gbe, disclosed this during the opening of the 2023 budget defence meeting with Ministries Department and Agencies (MDAs) in Monday in Asaba.
Gbe said that the figure is subject to change, adding that the state has no plan to be reckless in it’s spending.
”I am calling the figure indicative because this is not the final to it.
”We will also go back to the State Executive Council where we will debate this again and then proceed to the State House of Assembly for it to be looked at.
‘’Hence, the outcome might be more or less than this. The N459.2 billion that we are going to distribute is an indicative figure and will be presented to the State Executive Council as a draft document,’’ he said.
Gbe however, identified the Russia/Ukraine crisis, galloping inflation, and the volatile exchange rates as some of the factors among several factors that influenced the indicative budget size for 2023.
He also said that the inflationary trends have also affected the contractual obligations of the state government which has prompted upward reviews of projects.
”All of these affected the 2022 budget which has given us a sort of guide in planning the 2023 budget.
”We cannot run with the macroeconomic framework of 2022. We need to look at setting up another set of economic framework.
”We are looking at a production benchmark of 1.6million barrels per day in the context of ongoing vandalism, oil theft, etc.
Gbe also said that the state government is also taking into consideration the price of oil which is being sold at 70 dollars.
”The average price for oil this year is 107 dollars, but if there is a drop, it would not be as drastic as bringing it to 57 dollars. So, we don’t want to be very ambitious.
”The exchange rate is N435 as against N410 of 2020. We will be doing 13.1 per cent as against the 13 per cent of 2022.
”With all of these put together, we arrived at N459 billion as the indicative global size of the 2023 budget,” he said.
The commissioner also said that the proposed budget would be used to pay
outstanding loan interest of banks that were being owned by the state.
According to him, we do not want to leave a huge debt profile for new administration that will come in by May 2023.
He also said that the state government would concentrate on completion of existing projects.
Speaking shortly after presenting the Ministry of Information proposed budget, the state Commissioner for Information, Mr Charles Aniagwu commended the Ministry of Economic Planning for their contributions towards ensuring the finishing strong’ agenda of Gov. Ifeanyi Okowa.
“What we have come here to do today in line with what we have been doing over the years to ensure that we kick-start the process of our budget in good time so that the budget takes effect on the January 1 every year.
“What we have done today is to give them insight into what we have done in the past seven months plus in the ministry.
“We are hoping to unite the operations of DBS Asaba and DBS Warri without having to lose any staff so that at the end of the day, they operate much more harmoniously rather than operating independently.
“We are confident that in the course of time we will be able to achieve that using budgetary provisions,” he stated.
