The Oyo state house of assembly has explained to justify upward review of the 2021 budget from N266. 6 billion as earlier proposed by the state governor to N273.7 billion.
The Chairman, House Committee on Public Account, Appropriation, and Finance, Hon Akeem Mustapha representing Kajola state constituency, gave the justification on Tuesday while addressing house of assembly correspondents shortly after close of plenary sitting.
Hon Mustapha explained that when ministries, departments and agencies came for their budget defense, the house saw the need for upward review of the budget to properly accommodate development for the entire state.
He stated that the slight increase in the recurrent expenditure now stands at N1.3 billion (N1, 354 191 454.97) while increase in capital expenditure now rose to N5.7 billion (N5, 722 123 209.59).
He maintained that Oyo state is moving in the right direction considering the fact that the house has done justice to the budget by closing the gap between recurrent expenditure and capital expenditure.
He noted further that for any economy to be healthy there must not be a widened gap between recurrent expenditure and capital expenditure which according to him was exactly what the house has done.
He said that the upward review in the budget now implies that by year 2021 Oyo state will witness more capital projects, infrastructural development across all the zones in the state.
He expressed optimism of the house in the budget to perform better by year 2021 in terms of bridging infrastructural deficits in the state and experiencing rapid development.