It can be recalled that President Tinubu's proposed N27.5 trillion 2024 national budget is currently under consideration by the federal parliament.
Speaking during a joint sitting of the National Assembly Committee on Finance on Monday, Mr. Wale Edun informed the lawmakers that there has been a significant improvement in the nation's revenue profile in recent months.
He stated, "If the revenue continues to increase, the federal government would have no other option than to return to the National Assembly to seek further appropriation for the additional revenue."
“Revenue performance is encouraging. It is expected that it would continue to be encouraging, there is a fiscal policy and tax reform committee which is already at work.
“It is meant to provide fundamental changes together with digitalization and greater efficiency in the collection because it is revenue to debt that can allow us to increase this budget.
“If we have a solid revenue performance, we will be coming back, and am sure Mr President will authorise the process to return to the National Assembly to appropriate extra revenue that is a situation we are all looking forward to.”
Edun said that the Federal Government was already looking at how to speed up the procurement process to increase capital spending in the 2024 budget.
He said, “When we look at the actual budget performance, expenditure as of the third quarter of the year which is September, was 32 per cent below the budget estimate.
“Revenue was five per cent up, the revenue performance is quite encouraging because of change in the exchange rate, a depreciation of the currency and the fact we have a foreign debt of about $46bn outstanding.
The Chairman of the Joint National Assembly Committee on Finance, Senator Sani Musa, said Nigeria was currently in a delicate situation, economically.
He, however, said that the Tinubu administration was doing everything possible to change the narratives.
Musa said, “Nigeria today has found itself in a delicate situation, the high rate of unemployment and you know this transition period.
