N45bn ALLOCATED TO INEC IN 2014 BUDGET.

The federal government on Thursday allocated N45 billion in the 2014 budget to enable the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) prepare for the 2015 general elections.

The federal government announced the figure in the 2014 National Budget laid before the National Assembly by Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Minister of Finance.

President Goodluck Jonathan in a letter to the Senate on Wednesday stated that Okonjo-Iweala would present the budget to the National assembly.

The allocation to INEC is N13 billion higher than the 2013 budget of N32 billion.

According to the budget, the National Assembly allocation is to be maintained at the 2013 level of N150 billion.

It increased the provision for debt servicing from N591.8 billion in 2013 to N712 billion in 2014.

Recurrent spending was reduced slightly to N2.43 trillion in the 2014 budget as against N2.80 trillion in 2013.

The federal government had proposed N1.1 trillion for capital expenditure while share of  capital in total expenditure was also reviewed to 27.29 percent down from 31.9 percent in 2013.

This reflected the increased allocation to pension as well as high wage bills.

The share of recurrent in total spending was put at 72.71 percent while the provision for SURE-P was N268.37 billion.

The budget put the projected gross federally collectible revenue at N10.88 trillion, while N7.16 trillion was projected as gross federally collectible oil and gas revenue.

The total deductions, including cost of crude oil production, subsidy payments, and domestic gas development is N2.15 trillion which is the same in the 2013 budget.

Subsidy payments were maintained at the 2013 level of N971.1 billion while N3.29 trillion was budgeted as gross federally collectible non-oil revenue.

According to Okonjo-Iweala, the focus of the 2014 budget is on more job creation, infrastructure development and the cost of governance.