The Finance Minister’s presentation of the Mid-year budget review has been met with varied opinions from the political parties, economic experts and lecturers, politicians and other stakeholders.
The opposition NDC has raised inaccuracies of the figures bundied by the Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta describing it as populist and ‘shambolic’ which is intended to win the government votes, in the upcoming December elections.
The NDC noted the lack of prudence in the budget that should have reflected measures taken to close the budget deficit.
They contend that, the national debt is about GHC255 billion currently of which over a GHC 160 billion was as the result of the borrowing spree of the government which he condemned in opposition.
Adding that, the debt stock is 67% of current GDP.
“When he was taking over the government, the debt to GDP was 57% but today, it is about 67% with inaccurate figures”.
According to the former Deputy Energy Minister, Samuel Jinapor, the presentation had so many inaccuracies.
The Executive Director, Institute of Liberty and Policy Innovation (ILAPI) Peter Bismarck Kwoffie in an interview on Ahotor 92.3 fm noted the dire implication on taxes, public debt and the programs of the government and the cost involved, coupled with borrowing has had huge implications on the ordinary people as the citizens would have to be taxed more to pay for the actions of governments.
He noted the effects of the covid-19 and the $ 1 billion credit from the World Bank and the GHC 100 million covid-19 alleviation programme with borrowings from the Stabilization Fund, GHC 10 billion Emergency Fund from the Bank of Ghana obviously has raised our debt to GDP
External debt, Mr Kwoffie noted, stands at $20.3 billion which is 32.5% of national GDP with the domestic debt GHC 105 billion so believes that, without prudent governance, these debts could spell doom for the country when tax mobilization was weak due to the covid-19 pandemic on businesses.
Godfred Sey/ Ahotoronline
