Speaking on Eyewitness News on Tuesday, the Deputy Minority Leader, James Avedzi Klutse, said “It is shameful for Bawumia to say in the past that we don’t need to borrow because we have all the resources here and now saying that we need to borrow and borrow responsibly, that is the problem I have with him.”

Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia at the closing ceremony of the two-day National Policy Summit on Trade and Industry on Tuesday said the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) will continue the trajectory of borrowing to help grow the Ghanaian economy but will do that responsibly and not recklessly.

[contextly_sidebar id=”B6SJhhlRyqzX80pJEjcHOkP8M4lWh6RC”]“A lot of people misunderstand when we say we are going to be responsible, it doesn’t mean that we are not going to borrow money, it only means that we are going to borrow responsibly and not recklessly,” he added.

The Vice President who in the past lambasted the former government’s voracious appetite for foreign loans at the summit argued that “no government can say they won’t borrow money, that is ridiculous but you have to borrow responsibly and not recklessly.”

But Mr. Avedzi on Eyewitness News accused Dr. Bawumia of deception saying “reality is dawning on him” because “he knows that what he said when he was in opposition as a running mate was meant to deceive the people of Ghana so that he can get the votes, he’s got it now and he is now telling the people that he will borrow.”

“The Vice President now and while he was the running mate for the NPP was emphatic on the issue about borrowing in Ghana saying that the country need not borrow and that we have the resources here in Ghana and that when they win power they will not borrow.  Today he is now the Vice President, he is now giving a different interpretation to what he said; he is now defining that to be they will be doing responsible borrowing. In the first place who did irresponsible borrowing? Every government borrow and this borrowing is approved by the Parliament and in the case of Ghana, the previous Parliament was made up of both a NPP and NDC members and every loan that was taken by the previous government was approved by Parliament,” he noted.

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

The post Bawumia’s new position on borrowing shameful – Minority appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Bawumia at a lecture last Thursday among other things accused government of spending more money to refinance debts than it spent on productive assets.

He also said not only is Ghana spending more on interest payments than on infrastructure, but is also spending more on interest payments than the value of key agricultural production like Cocoa, livestock, fishing, forestry and logging – put together.

[contextly_sidebar id=”xuP9rXvU5WNrQ3O099SLI9QhKFeIhhhL”]But the Vice President speaking at the launch of the Greater Accra Zonal campaign at Ashiaman in Accra on Sunday said Dr. Bawumia’s claim is wrong saying “at the appropriate time, we will correct him and teach him the things that he doesn’t know.”

“How can you say that we paid interest more than capital expenditure? It is that capital expenditures money that we are paying as interest so this one is a simple thing you learn in primary school so I don’t know how people who have qualifications cannot understand this simple concept. In economics we call it classification, you have to classify that interest payment into the things that you used that money from. You don’t pay money for nothing; you don’t pay interest if you haven’t borrowed money. You pay interest when you have borrowed money.”

“When you have borrowed the money and you have paid the interest, that interest you say that this one was for this road, this one was for hospital, this one was for educational institutions, so then you take the interest and classify it according to the projects that you use the money for. So you cannot come and say that interest payments have exceeded capital payments therefore we have made some mistake, no. At the appropriate time, we will correct him and teach him the things that he doesn’t know,” Amissah-Arthur added.

Bawumia selectively used debt figures – Terkper

Finance Minister, Seth Terkper had also said Dr. Bawumia selectively used the data on government for his lecture.

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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

The post Bawumia missed ‘simple primary school’ economics – Veep appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.