Parliament approves 2018 budget review

The debate on the mid-year budget review by Parliament has concluded. As anticipated, there was a disagreement as to whether the economic outlook has been good or not and whether the economic policies are prudent or not.

The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, presented the budget review to Parliament on July 19, 2018 and the debate started last Monday.  

Concluding the debate the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, said the economic outlook did not look good. He wondered why the government is seeking to increase revenue through increase in taxes, if the outlook is good.  

Mr Iddrisu said the claim by Mr Ofori-Atta that the increasing depreciation of the cedi is due to external pressure is flawed. He said when the cedi was depreciating in the past, there was no attribution to external pressures.

Mr Iddrisu, who is the National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP for Tamale South, accused the government of not being sincere with the issue of the realignment of 2.5 per cent Health Insurance Fund Levy and the 2.5 per cent Ghana Education Trust Fund  levy on VAT to a flat levy.

Concluding the debate for the Majority side, the MP for Atiwa East and Deputy Minister of Finance, Abena Asare Osei, said the economy is doing very well.  

She said, fiscal deficit has reduced, inflation has gone down, debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio has reduced, while growth rate has gone up.   

Madam Osei said the call by Mr Ofori-Atta for social ownership should be accepted by all and urged Ghanaians to support the government to implement its policies. 

She said the criticismsof government policies without considering their impact on the people is not the best for the needed national discourse.
 
SOURCE: GRAPHICONLINE
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