The Minister of Finance, Seth Terkper will today [Friday] present the 2016 budget and financial statement of the government to Parliament.
Sources close to the Ministry of Finance told Citi News that the financial statement of the government for next year [contextly_sidebar id=”nIxdK7e5hBet1im4Q9tAxGDiOndjSxLC”]would be an “upbeat budget,” particularly for the energy sector, considering that the government had secured the World Bank’s Partial Risk Guarantee (PRG) to support investment in the Sankofa Gas fields.
Borrowing
Ahead of today’s presentation, the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) has admonished government to stop borrowing to pay debts.
ISSER is worried about government’s recurrent expenditure which it says it is not sustainable in relation to the gap in revenues.
Ghana’s budget deficit in the 2015 revised budget was pegged at 9.7 billion Ghana Cedis, equivalent to 7.3 percent of GDP as against the earlier estimate of 8.8 billion Ghana Cedis, equivalent to 6.5 percent of GDP.
Meanwhile, the Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC) wants government to increase budgetary allocations to the social sector to support the poor and vulnerable in the country.
Government under the current International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme is implementing some form of austerity measures which ISODEC believes has brought untold hardship to poor people.
In an interview with Citi News‘ senior budget analyst at ISODEC, Charlotte Gbedehu believes it will be suicidal for government to attempt to cut spending in health, education and social protection.
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By: Raymond Acquah/citifmonline.com/Ghana