Politics
Mid-year budget: Ghanaians expected e-levy, other taxes to go but govt missed the opportunity – Ato Forson
The government missed an opportunity to remove the taxes that Ghanaians expected them to be abolished, the Minority Leader Dr Cassiel Ato Forson has said.
The government missed an opportunity to remove the taxes that Ghanaians expected them to be abolished, the Minority Leader Dr Cassiel Ato Forson has said.
Dr Forson indicated that Ghanaians expected taxes such as the E-levy, Emission Levy, and Covid Levy to be removed.
Speaking on the floor of Parliament after the mid-year budget statement by Finance Minister Dr Mohammed Amin Adam on Tuesday, July 23, the Ejumako Enyan Essian lawmaker accused the Akufo-Addo administration of lacking ideas to handle the economy.
To him, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration is heading into opposition because of their lack of ideas.
“Ghanaians expected that the government would have removed a number of taxes because businesses are packing out of the country.
“The taxes include covid levy, e-levy, ‘borla’ tax, tax on domestic electricity, emission levy. This is a missed opportunity. They are bereft of ideas, you are on your way to opposition,” he said.
The Finance Minister said during the presentation that the provisional total debt stock of Ghana stood at GH¢742 billion, representing US$50.9 billion as of June 2024.
Dr Amin Adam further assured Ghanaians that the government is living within its budget.
He indicated that the government has reined in expenditures as part of efforts to ensure they are within 2024 Budget Appropriation.
He also said that they have exceeded the midyear revenue target by 0.2 percent by end-June, 2024.
“In effect, Mr. Speaker, we are living within our means. Indeed, consistent with our programme with the IMF, we are on course to achieving a primary surplus of 0.5 percent of GDP by end of the year.
“We have successfully concluded the second review of our Extended Credit Facility with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which led to the disbursement of the 3rd tranche of 360 million US Dollars, bringing total disbursement to about US$1.6 billion; We have completed the Debt Restructuring programme with the Official Creditor Committee (OCC), covering US$5.1 billion dollars resulting in approximately 2.8 billion US Dollars of debt relief. This means that we will not service our debt to our official creditors from 2023 to 2026;
“We have concluded our negotiations with five (5) of the seven (7) Independent Power Producers, which will lead to a saving of some of US$6.6 US Billion over the lifetime of the Purchasing Power Agreements (PPAs); We have cleared all outstanding Bank Transfer Advice (BTAs) up to 2022, and working hard to pay BTAs from 2023;
“We have embarked on major reforms of State Owned Enterprises (SOEs), especially those in the Energy and Cocoa sectors, to be fiscally prudent and reduce their risk on the budget,” he said.
