By Amaka Amaka
Education, in the Social Sector, has received the highest allocation in the 2024 appropriation bill presented to the Enugu State House of Assembly last week by Governor Peter Mbah.
It got 73.6 per cent of the social sector allocation, and 33 per cent of the total budget, representing the highest in both instances.
The Commissioner for Budget Planning, Chris Roberts Ozongwu, announced this at the budget breakdown in Enugu, Friday.
“Consequently, ₦134,587,982,647.78 representing 73.6% of the social sector has been earmarked to help reinvent education in our state by developing the new smart schools, as well as repositioning our senior secondary and tertiary institutions by training and retraining teachers and updating the State’s School curricula across all levels of education to infuse technology and technology appreciation and skills”.
Ozongwu explained that the Smart Schools would be aimed at capturing children at a tender age and put them through education with modern equipment and materials.
Ozongwu continued: “Other top allocations include infrastructural development and maintenance, particularly roads and public buildings, with N82.5 billion.
“Agriculture, got N25.1 billion for the self-sufficiency and economic diversification agenda; water got N28.9 billion to ensure safe and quality water supply in the state and boost reticulation across the Enugu metropolis; and health got N21.7 billion, as the administration ramps up construction of 260 Type-2 Primary Healthcare Centers across the 260 electoral wards.”
Also speaking during the briefing, the Executive Chairman Enugu State Internal Revenue Board, Emmanuel Nnamani, said that what the government wants to do in terms of revenue generation is not by increasing taxes or rates, but by making sure that every citizen or industries pay appropriate taxes to the State. He said that the available data suggests that the amount provided in the budget is very achievable.
” Henceforth all businesses, including private and public schools and hospitals, in Enugu will be expected to remit their Pay As You Earn, PAYE, taxes to the government explaining that this would boost the internally generated revenue of the State.
Nnamani added that the law provides that owners of Plazas and residential buildings should pay ten percent of their rents to the government as tax.
He regretted that people have not been obeying this law in the State, saying those are areas the government is expecting to increase the internal revenue of the State.
*Another area of focus is the land use charge. All lands belong to the government, that If you must maintain these lands over the period of 99 years, you need to pay the maintenance fee. Maintenance fee is called the land use charge pointing out that over the years, nobody has paid this land use charge in the State.
“Available data show that Enugu has over four hundred thousand buildings. If the land use charge of these 400, 000 buildings should be paid into the states account, it will make a positive impact in the revenue generation”, Nnamani stated.
