The Federal Government said, on Wednesday, that a total sum of N1. 2 trillion was released for capital projects in the 2019 budget.

This, according to the government, represents about 50 percent of the capital expenditure. The federal government also said the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) would be passed by the National Assembly latest June next year.

The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, disclosed these while briefing State House correspondents at the end of the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. The minister said the federal government has started the process of a new long term development plan and has prepared a road map that would be subjected to various stakeholders’ reviews before the actual planning process would start.

She said: “The Ministry of Finance, Budget, and National Planning reported on its 100 days performance to Federal Executive Council today. The Ministry of Finance has 11 major mandate areas.

“First of in terms of revenue performance, the revenue performance prorated to the third quarter of 2019 is N4. 25 trillion and that represents a performance of 81 percent. That is to third-quarter so its nine months prorated not a full year.

“The GDP growth that we planned for 2019 was 3.5 percent and the third quarter GDP performance was reported as 2.28 percent.

“On expenditure, we have been able to release all that is required for personnel so personnel expenditure is on course, debt service is also on course.”

“We have been able to release eight months overhead for general MDAs and 11 months overhead for some MDAs we classify as critical.

“This includes the security services, the Federal Government Unity Colleges as well as NYSC and prison rations. So a few agencies that we classify as critical have received 11 months and we are working on the 12-month overhead release for this category of MDAs.” (Vanguard)