Ebun Francis || The Federal Executive Council on Thursday approved the draft copy of the 2018 budget proposal, the Road Trust Fund (RTF), and The Construction of 13-Kilometre 330 KVA transmission line to evacuate power from Azura power plant in Edo.
Udo Udoma, the minister of budget and national planning made the disclosure while briefing newsmen at the end of the federal executive council meeting.
According to Udoma, the council will liaise with the national assembly to fix a date when the President will present the budget.
He said, “We did promise that the budget will be ready in October and it will be ready in October.”
“We are liaising with the national assembly because they have to approve the date for the president to come and address them to submit the budget.
“Before now we use to submit in December but now the budget is ready in October so there is a very big difference.”
Udoma, however, declined to reveal the details of the proposal, saying “it is the president’s prerogative to submit the budget, submit the proposals and give the details. I will be operating above my brief if I do that, the constitution gives that authority to the president.”
The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun on her part said that the council approved the establishment of Road Trust Fund (RTF) structure.
According to her, the RTF structure is a PPP initiative that will allow the private sector to get involved in road construction in exchange for tax credit.
“What is unique about the scheme is that it is building on an existing scheme that avails tax credit but is one company per road and we have found that only two companies have been able to take advantage of it.
“The tax will be recovered over a three-year period. We expect this to mobilize significant capital into road provision across the country.
“The ministry of works will be approving the design and the cost of those roads.
“The Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP) will also provide certificates of no objection to make sure that the costs are reasonable, ministry of works will supervise.
“What we expect is significant road delivery, especially in areas, for example, industrial clusters, affected by very bad roads.
“We expect the impact on revenues to be neutral because we are tightening our tax code. But, we still put in a limit that no company can apply and use more than 50 per cent of the tax within a year for this scheme.”
According to the minister, with the RTF structure, the government is trying to widen the pool of funds for road construction in the country.
Fashola said the council approved the construction of 14 kilometres transmission line for the Distribution Company of Nigeria to evacuate the Azura power plant in Edo at the cost of N796.6 million.
He said Azura power plant would be ready in May 2018, while the construction project would be completed within the next seven months.
With agency reports.