2024 budget hopeless – PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has described President Bola Tinubu’s proposed N27.5 trillion budget for the 2024 fiscal year as hopeless and a huge disservice.

PDP said if the proposed budget is passed, it will further asphyxiate Nigerians and plunge the nation into more economic depression and hopelessness.

A statement signed by PDP’s spokesman, Debo Ologunagba, said: “It is clear that the 2024 budget as proposed with its heavy provisions for the luxury appetite of the Presidency and All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders, which is predicated and expected to be funded from multilateral and bilateral foreign loans and increased taxes on Nigerians, is designed to further mortgage our nation and strangulate the already impoverished Nigerians.

“The budget framework with respect to recurrent expenditure vote of N9.9 trillion, capital expenditure vote of N8.7 trillion, and N8.25 trillion for debt services is unsustainable and unrealisable in view of the stated outstanding debt and proposed borrowing, which is targeted mainly to finance consumption, luxury appetite, and debt servicing.

“The lack of concrete and verifiable action plans to revive the manufacturing, energy, agricultural, and education sectors, which are the main drivers of any economy, is a pointer that the Tinubu-led APC government is bereft of ideas and completely disconnected from the reality of life being faced by Nigerians.

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“It is of grave concern that the President in the budget speech stated that his government has adopted a Naira to US Dollar exchange rate of N750 per US Dollar for 2024.

“This is a clear admission of failure, incapacity, and lack of direction by the APC administration to manage and grow the economy in such a way as to strengthen the national currency, productivity, and competitiveness in the global market.

“It has further confirmed that the numerous promises by the President and officials of his government asserting a monetary policy to strengthen the naira have been a deceptive ploy, which is consistent with the APC in the past eight and a half years.”