2018 Budget: Parliament kick-starts debate with heated arguments 

Parliament has kick-started the debate on the 2018 Budget with heated arguments. 

The Minister of Planning and Member of Parliament (MP) for Wenchi, Professor George Gyan-Baffour, who set the tone for the debate, explained that the Budget is in four thematic areas. These are economic, social, environment and infrastructure development and governance, corruption and accountability.

Chairman of the Finance Committee, Dr Mark Assibey-Yeboah said the debt to GDP ratio has dropped significantly from 73% to 68 percent. 

He added that currently the government has met all its set  targets as this has manifested in the positive outlook the country has received from international credit rating agencies. 

A Ranking Member on the Finance Committee and the MP for Ajumako-Enyan-Esiam, Cassiel Ato Forson, described the budget as empty and asked the house to reject it while calling for its immediate withdrawal. 

He accused government of ballooning the budget for the various government machineries while expenditure in the economic sectors that will drive growth have been reduced.

The MP for Ofoase-Ayirebi, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah, for his part explained that primary balance is surplus zero-point-three percent, a sign that government is on target. 

He called on the minority to encourage government to succeed rather than finding loopholes in everything. 

The MP for Bolgatanga Central, Isaac Adongo, called for more budgetary allocation in the healthcare sector as it is struggling. 

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