Parliament on Wednesday approved the 2015 budget and financial policy of government that seeks to restore fiscal stability.
Stability would be achieved by harnessing the service sector, reducing deficit from 6.5 per cent to 3.9 per cent of Gross Domestic Product and targeting a dip of 11.5 per cent in inflation from the current 16.9 per cent.
Anticipating additional oil and gas revenue from 2015 through 2017, and improved forex flows, the economic plan is targeting to strengthen structural and fiscal weaknesses to improve the current fiscal deficits.
It seeks also to create an enabling environment for increased local production and expansion of the economy.
Finance Minister Seth Emmanuel Terkper who moved the motion for approval of the financial policy after five days of debate on the budget by lawmakers, said the economic policy would advance the transformational agenda of the economy to bring an overall improvement in all sectors of the economy.
“We believe that this budget offers another opportunity for us to work together to achieve the goals of promising medium term opportunities,” he said.
He said government is going to put a lot of resources into management systems to plug all shortcomings against achieving the set objectives outlined in the budget, including corruption, waste and mismanagement and ensure a clean government payroll.
Minority leader, Osei Kyei-Mensa Bonsu, asked the Finance Minister to provide the House and the people of Ghana with a comprehensive list of all the projects financed by domestic and external borrowing and the amounts involved since 2009 to ensure proper accounting for what he called the “staggering increase in the debt stock”.
He accused the government of excessive borrowing and queried the government on why recent loan agreements which had been approved by the House were conspicuously missing from the nation’s “rather humongous debt stock”.
To him, its inclusion might increase the debt stock to about GH¢ 80 billion, cautioning government to watch the current rate of borrowing.
“Ghana shall, before long, plunge into the league of countries with high risk of debt distress which will then disable us from raising financing from the international capital market.”
Majority Leader Alban Sumana Bagbin called for support for the government’s policy that he said would accrue benefits in the medium term.
He proposed that subsequent financial policy statements should move beyond the one- year period to two or more years to ensure stability and continuity in fiscal planning and implementation.
Mr Bagbin also rallied for the resource of state institutions like the Electoral Commission, the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, the National Commission for Civic Education and the Legislature to function effectively to safeguard the country’s cohesion and stability.
Source: GNA