FG loses N1.1trn in IGR, says Budget Office D-G

The Director-General, Budget Office, Dr Ben Akabueze, on Thursday said that the Federal Government lost about N1.15 trillion in the revenue it expected to realise as Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) projection of the 2016 fiscal year.
Briefing the National Assembly Joint Committee on Appropriations, Akabueze said government had projected to realise N1.506 trillion through the IGR but ended up realizing only N398billion.
He further said the percentage implementation of the 2016 capital projects stands at 55 per cent.
In her own submission, Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed said due to shortage of fund for the implementation of the budget, government prioritised issuance of capital releases by focusing more on Agriculture and Mining sectors.
She, however said government was still working to meet up with the release of N1 trillion being its target for 2016 before the end of fiscal of May 2017.
Meanwhile, the committee ordered the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin Emefiele to appear before it unfailingly on Friday.
It gave the order when it drove away the representative, the CBN Governor sent to the session.
This was due to the fact that Emefiele  did not inform the committee ahead of the session of his absence as done by some other invited top government officials.
Attempts made by Emefiele’s representative at the session to tender apology on his behalf were rejected by the committee members.
“You lack the competence as an Acting Director to stand before this committee representing the CBN Governor,” the members stressed
Earlier  Chairman Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Danjuma Goje, said that  relevant  personnel were invited to brief Nigerians on the progress achieved in the implementation of the 2016 budget.