Cassiel Ato Forson: Concerns of Ghanaians not Addressed in Gov’t’s Mid-year Budget Review

Cassiel Ato Forson

Cassiel Ato Forson, ranking member of Parliament’s Finance Committee, is unimpressed with the government’s mid-year review of the Budget Statement and Economic Policy.

According to Mr. Forson, the budget does not provide any promise for resolving Ghana’s economic issues.

“We have a country that is in crisis economically, everything is not working yet the Minister responsible for Finance appeared before us and said nothing. He failed to address the very concerns of the ordinary Ghanaians,” he said.

Additionally, he questioned the government’s capacity to achieve its anticipated rates of economic growth.

The government’s estimated economic growth rate projection for 2022 has been revised from 5.8 percent to 3.7 percent, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta revealed when presenting the mid-year budget to Parliament for approval on July 25.

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“In the light of the significant changes in the global environment and our own unique challenges, we have revised our economic growth estimate for 2022 to 3.7% down from 5.8% as stated in the 2022 budget,” Ken Ofori-Atta said.

The Minority side, however, took issue with this and blamed the government’s decision to use loans for Ghana’s increasing debt load.

“Today, he comes here once again only to tell us that he has missed all the targets he set in the 2022 budget. Every one of them he could not achieve. Only for him to propose targets he is going to miss again by the end of the year 2022… Our Minister responsible for Finance informed all of us that the GDP growth for the year 2022 has been revised from 5.8% to 3.7%, I bet to say that the 3.7% he cannot achieve it”.

“This government, all that they know is solve every problem with debt. I call it one problem, one loan. That is what this government is practising. Today, our public debt is in excess of GH¢400. The Finance Minister failed to tell us we cannot pay our debts… unfortunately, what we witnessed today is nothing but incompetence,” he said.



 

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