Ogun State Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Bimbo Ashiru said on Monday that the ministry had put in place machinery to generate N4billion in revenue next year.
Ashiru who said this while defending the ministry’s 2018 budget proposal at the Ogun House of Assembly in Abeokuta, explained that the amount proposed by the ministry was achievable, saying the ministry had mapped out strategies to block all leakages in revenue collection.
He said that the ministry had proposed to generate N200 million from registration of trade and artisans in the state while N3 billion would be generated from haulage.
“The ministry intends to intensify efforts on monitoring and enforcement for effective collections of haulage fee across the state.
“There are over 24,000 business premises payers in the state. The sum of N300million is budgeted to be generated from registration and renewal of business premises.
“N500 million will be generated from inspection of quarries, monitoring of activities of quarry operators, regulation of illegal mining in the state and collection of surface rent,’’ he said.
Ashiru also said that the ministry had proposed to spend the sum N740million on capital expenditure while N420 million had been earmarked for recurrent expenditure.
Defending the budget of his ministry, Muyiwa Oladipo, the Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, said that the ministry had earmarked N2.6 billion as its total expenditure for 2018.
Oladipo explained that the ministry had also proposed to put in place a museum in each of the three senatorial districts in the state.
“There is no museum in Ogun East. We intend having one to be called `Museum of Cultural Heritage and Data. The likes of Ogunde museum will complement that of the state,’’ he said.
Declaring the budget defence open, Deputy Speaker, Olakunle Oluomo, said the exercise was not meant to witch hunt any Ministry, Department or Agency, but part of the constitutional duties of the house.