The 2023 budget statement and economic policy, which Minister of Finance Ken Ofori-Atta delivered to Parliament yesterday, have been criticized by the minority party as being uninspiring because they offer little hope for the future for young people because there would be a job freeze.
As a result, it has warned the populace to prepare for “maximum misery” in the upcoming year that will be worse than in the years 1979 and 1983.
It said that the budget only caused the citizens intolerable misery.
Taxes
The minority party’s spokeswoman on finance, Dr. Cassiel Ato Baah Forson, responded to the “Nkabom” budget by saying that because there would be an employment freeze, it offered no hope for the youth in particular.
Beyond that, he added, the disputed E-Levy headline rate’s decrease from 1.5% to 1% of the transaction value, along with the elimination of the daily threshold, meant that the exclusions that citizens previously received would be eliminated.
This implies that Ghanaians would begin paying taxes on even the smallest amounts of money they transmit, such as GH 10, the man claimed.
The budget offers little hope to traders, young people, or anyone else because taxes will increase, according to Dr. Forson.
Debt restructuring
He claimed that the minister’s admission that a debt restructuring will take place after talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) showed that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo had lied to Ghanaians when he said “there will be no haircut.”
“Treasury Bills are the only debt that will be excluded from the restructuring. This indicates that a haircut will be applied to all external loans, including Eurobonds “Added he.
He predicted that the budget for 2023 would be one of severe and extreme austerity.
As a result of the budget’s failure to include appendices with the actual numbers for scrutiny, the spokesperson claimed that it was nothing more than simple grammar.
The Ghanaian economy is indeed critically ailing, and the dozes being offered will only cause our demise, he continued.
Dr. Forson, who represents the Central Region’s Ajumako Enyan Esiam Constituency as a Member of Parliament (MP) for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), claimed that the additional taxes will raise the statutory rate to 21% while increasing the effective rate to 22%.
“It’s frightening. The minister omitted to explain the method for reducing government spending. Because he did not specify the appropriate expenditure, the items the Finance Minister introduced are meaningless “said he.
Adongo
Isaac Adongo, the NDC representative for Bolgatanga Central, stated in a presentation at the time that families were fighting to maintain their unity and that the government had reached into the purses of the common people to take twice as much as it did in 2022.
He claimed that typically, people would expect the government to cut costs so that it could use the small amount of revenue it had received to manage its way out of the situation.
“Unfortunately, it has had to reduce spending on hampers and dairy products. Is that what we want?” he questioned.
He questioned the justification for the GH205 billion increase in spending from GH109 billion.
In a time when the economy is struggling, “doubling expenditure by 88 percent is baffling,” he said.
“The government will have funded a deficit that is 50% of its total revenue for three years in a row next year,” he continued.
Minority Leader
The Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, stated earlier in the chamber that Ghanaians had heard the Minister of Finance declare Ghana to be a high debt troubled country. She was seconding the motion for the adjournment of the House.
With this proclamation, the minister set the nation on the route to debt restructuring, which he had previously defined as a debt exchange program, by describing the budget as a “Eka mpe dede budget,” or “debt doesn’t like noise.”
Therefore, he declared, “Mr. Speaker, this budget is an ‘Eka mpe dede’ budget because he announced debt restructuring under the guise of a debt exchange program.”
He stated that he expected the minister to regularize his borrowing in accordance with the 2016 Bank of Ghana Act as amended.
In order to get approval for “your exorbitant borrowing from the Bank of Ghana,” he encouraged the Finance Minister to return to the House.
The leader called the House’s attention to the budget presentation’s obvious lack of ceremony and fanfare.
“Even they (majority MPs) are not happy, which explains why the Vice-President is not with the Finance Minister.
He claimed that the Finance Minister had only confirmed that Ghana’s economy was currently being kept alive by artificial means, which could lead to either recovery or the unknown.
He said, “He has our prayers that we will assist him in recovering the economy.”
