[ad_1]
Former Deputy Finance Minister, Mona Quartey says the government’s downward revision of the Appropriation Bill from GH¢227.7 billion to GH¢206 billion should not be celebrated as a major economic achievement.
She makes the point that, the government is already cash-strapped and is left with no other option than to be measured in its spending.
The government has justified the GH¢20 billion cut in expenditure, saying it is enough for the country in its current state and therefore did not request a supplementary budget during the budget review.
It said the country in the first six months of the year had seen improvements in tax revenue and was on course to meet its targets for the year.
But oil revenues had fallen short of expectations due to changes in global prices thus the downward review of expenditure to align with the underperformance of some of its revenue handles.
But reacting to this, Mona Quartey said the government should give Ghanaians a break since the economy is still in tatters.
She cited Domestic Debt Exchange Programme repayment, Ghana being locked out of the capital market as some challenges the country is still faced with.
“Today we see a revision in the growth rate downwards, as if we are overheated, which we hadn’t. We had just gone through COVID-19 and our growth had become sluggish. We had now actually taken it further down. GH¢20 billion cut in expenditure, is it because we wanted to cut expenditure, or it is because we have to? I really wanted to support them that we have so been wonderful, we are great accountants and we had cut expenditures. I think we didn’t even have the money to spend.
She emphasised, “One, we were locked out of the capital market, two, we are struggling with the Domestic Debt Exchange Programme repayment plan, which we haven’t even concluded, we are still dealing with pensions who we told we will pay their monies, and yet we are still trying to negotiate with them. We are going back to this same domestic market to borrow for recurrent expenditure, only because were have nowhere else to turn to, so that expenditure cut was not because we wish to, because we wanted a wonderful surplus or so forth. But the deficit was necessary because there wasn’t even money to spend. So that GH¢20 billion, it was not out of fancy, but more out of a necessity, we don’t have it, Ghana does not have GH¢20 to spend. So that didn’t happen,”
She applauded the government for not imposing new taxes.
“Not coming with any new taxes was a relief, I’m sure if you talk to anyone on the streets, they will tell you just as we go along, as we have seen in the mid-year review. With capital expenditure, for infrastructure for example, for a country like ours. We have a massive infrastructure deficit, you would have expected that last year’s, year of roads, would have put in a whole lot more kilometres. A whole lot more bridges, a whole lot more of the ports infrastructure. Basically, a different area of transportation to make things work,” former Deputy Finance Minister said.
[ad_2]
Source link