By Odeh Ogaji
The Taraba State Government is to spend N34.39 billion to fund salaries, pensions, and gratuities of civil servants in 2021.
Giving the breakdown of the approved 2021 budget of N141.62 billion Monday, the state Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Solomon Elisha, explained that the new minimum wage was taken into cognisance before arriving at the figure to fund salaries, gratuities, and pension.
According to the commissioner, the N34.39 billion represents 41.8% of the state’s total Recurrent Expenditure of 2021 which stands at N82.24 billion.
He said, “the state government plans to spend the sum of N82.24 billion as recurrent expenditure, while the balance of N59.38 billion would be used for capital development.
“Personnel cost has taken the largest share of 41.82% of our total expenditure, followed by the overhead cost of N27.56 billion, which represents 33.50% while recurrent liability has the least with N330 million (0.40%).”
Elisha, who stressed further, how the state government would fund the 2021 budget said, “36.64% would be from the statutory allocation, 14.67% from internal loans, 10.6% from Value Added Tax (VAT), and 6.55% from Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).
“From the above analysis, you will agree with me that there is a need for a paradigm shift from dependence on external sources to internal sources.
“In this light, all hands have to be on deck for us to explore our abundant untapped resources, to actualize our dream of becoming the leading economy in the North-East sub-region,” he added.
