COMMENT | The secretary general of the Ministry of Finance is confident that the budget objective of bringing down the federal deficit to three percent of the GDP can be achieved.

That is good news.

However, let us also note that this achievement will not only be the result of the steady GDP growth and the commendable revenue collection but also because of the austerity measures. These measures have been introduced on the operating expenditures of almost all ministries.

Since the expenditures on civil service salaries and pensions cannot be cut and payments on interest charges and statutory grants to state governments must be honoured, the entire cuts have had to fall on discretionary budget items like travelling, entertainment, purchases of office supplies, maintenance of public buildings and other expenditures of a recurrent nature.

University budget cuts

The Treasury has pruned down a lot of the unnecessary expenditures in its prudent management of the federal government budget. The officers have done a good job of spring cleaning.

On the other hand, we are hearing a lot of complaints from the sectors that have to take the heaviest cuts....