Don’t pass the 2020 budget as presented—Angela Johnson tells NASS

&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">The&NewLine;Presidential candidate of the Alliance for United Nigeria&comma; AUN&comma; Angela Johnson&comma;&NewLine;has urged the Senate and House of Representatives to scrutinize the 2020 budget&NewLine;estimates presented by President Muhammadu Buhari before passage in view of&NewLine;what she sees as seemingly weak prospects in tackling the country’s endangered&NewLine;economy&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">She&NewLine;expressed this reservation through a press statement issued by her media office&NewLine;on Thursday&period; She&NewLine;lamented a recurrent component of N4&period;88 trillion and debt service of N2&period;45trillion&NewLine;in the N10&period;3trillion estimate&comma; with nothing left for the much needed&NewLine;infrastructure development&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">She emphasized that the N2&period;14trillion proposed as capital expenditure is insufficient to stimulate the economy along a trajectory that could guarantee growth&period; Among other things&comma; Angela Johnson &nbsp&semi;sees the borrowing plans as worrisome as a result of the growing debt profile which rose by additional N3&comma;3 trillion in 12 months peaking at N25&period;7trillion &nbsp&semi;as at the end of June 2019&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;A proposed N2&period;46 trillion to service existing foreign loans and N2&period;14 trillion for capital budget does not stand the basic logic in elementary economics” She stated&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">She added that debt service commitment and recurrent spending are beginning to crowd out capital expenditure&comma; saying this development does not only negate the &nbsp&semi;aspiration to lift 100 million Nigerians from poverty but a despairing move in building infrastructure and competitive economy&period; She emphasized that given the revenue challenges confronting the country&comma; it will take divine intervention for 50 percent implementation&comma; a development that will perpetually keep Nigeria low&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">She&NewLine;stated that for a government that is reputed for ineptitude and unforgiveable&NewLine;history of low releases of budgeted funds&comma; the low revenue to Gross Domestic&NewLine;Product can affect the implementation of the budget if passed as presented&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">While&NewLine;the minimum wage is yet to be implemented&comma; she maintained that the introduction&NewLine;of 2&period;5 per cent increase in Value Added Tax&comma; VAT&comma; is not only inhuman but an&NewLine;assault on Nigerians who are struggling to afford three square meals a day&period;<br>&NewLine;&nbsp&semi;&nbsp&semi;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;This is where Alliance for United Nigerian is&NewLine;different&period; AUN has conscience and will not further impoverish Nigerians through&NewLine;unrealistic budget estimates&period; The country’s earnings are declining&period; The&NewLine;exchange rate assumption of N305 to the dollar is unrealistic&period; Why should a&NewLine;government be so deceitful&quest; She asked&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p class&equals;"wp-block-paragraph">She&NewLine;therefore urges the NASS to examining critically those aspects and alters&NewLine;appropriately where necessary for an all inclusive growth in the 2020 fiscal&NewLine;year&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;