…says I’ve not received fresh N5bn Paris Club
By Mumini AbdulKareem
Kwara State Governor, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq yesterday spoke on how his government plans to utilise the Tax Refund recently remitted to the state by the Federal Government.
The money whose receipt was confirmed by former governor Abdulfatah Ahmed during the twilight of the last administration was inherited by the Abdulrazaq’s administration.
Since then, although the Governor has not made any pronouncement on how the administration intends to spend the money, local government and other affected workers in the state being owed backlog of salaries during the last dispensation have reportedly pleaded to be considered for payment from the fund.
But according to the Governor, who clarified that only N4.8billion tax refund was received by the state contrary to the N5bn earlier reported, he said the money would be used to fund the 2019 budget deficit passed by the 8th Assembly.
He however denied that the new government received any new fund whether in form of bailout or Paris Club Refund.
Governor Abdulrazaq spoke through his Chief Press Secretary (CPS), Rafiu Ajakaye in a text message to this reporter on the development weekend.
According to him, the recent releases of fund for the repair of road and water amounting to over N40m were deducted from the Tax Refund adding that N4.8bn was not a windfall.
He said: “Now, you must understand that the Kwara State Government has 2019 budget which was signed into law by former Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed. The budget is a legal proposal which requires cash backing for implementation.
“To that extent, the tax refund is being used to fund budget deficits. It is not a windfall. It is going into funding the budget as passed by the State House of Assembly and assented to by the former governor.
“For instance, the 2019 budget provided for the rehabilitation of the 10 roads that the Kwara State Road Maintenance Agency (KWARMA) is working on. But there was no cash backing for it. The Governor, realising the importance of fixing the roads, released N20m to fund the rehabilitation of the roads.
“It is the same thing for the money recently released for the water corporation. There was appropriation for such intervention but there was no cash backing for it by the previous administration. Giving the overriding importance of water to our existence, the Governor has released the money since it had already been appropriated for in the 2019 budget. So yes, the money released for the roads and water were from the tax refunds, he noted.
On whether the government has received any other money since inception apart from the tax refund, the CPS said “There was no release of any new Paris Club refund to Kwara State. The last Paris Club refund was made to the Abdulfatai Ahmed’s administration and not a dime of it was inherited by this administration”, he added.
