Chairman of Parliament\u2019s Finance Committee, James Klutse Avedzi, says government will continue to borrow so far as Ghanaians continue to make demands from the administration.<\/p>\n
In an interview with Citi News, the Ketu North MP said it is insincere for the citizenry to pressurize government for developmental projects, and at the same time criticize government\u2019s borrowing.<\/p>\n
Government has come under severe criticism over the country\u2019s debt to GDP ratio which currently stands at the dreaded 70 percent threshold with many expressing fears the figure could\u00a0send the country back to the status of a highly indebted poor country, HIPC.<\/p>\n
But the Bank of Ghana has insisted that although the country\u2019s debt stock has reached an alarming rate of GH\u00a2 94.5 billion,\u00a0more than 70% of GDP, it still does not mean Ghana is now HIPC.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Citi News on government\u2019s borrowing spree, the\u00a0Chairman of Parliament\u2019s Finance Committee, James Klutse Avedzi, said Ghanaians may have to stop making excessive demands on government if borrowing is to cease or minimize.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf government is borrowing to fix the problem for this country and we are complaining that government is borrowing too much what do we expect the government to do? If he continues to borrow we will blame government that the borrowing is too much. For this year 2015, the Ghana Revenue Authority has estimated to collect Ghc 25 billion and with other sources of revenue like oil, cocoa, timber and the rest, the total came to Ghc 32 billion. So it means that even the Ghc32 billion is not enough to meet all these even with the exception of development project\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo if we don\u2019t want government to borrow then let\u2019s give more money to government or let\u2019s not demand more from government so that the little that we are giving to government through our taxes and other natural resources, government will use that money alone for running the economy; so that we don\u2019t blame government if a road is not fixed, we don\u2019t blame government if materials are not provided at the hospital to take care of patients; we don\u2019t blame government if materials for teaching and learning are not provided for schools\u201d.<\/p>\n
In a related development,\u00a0Finance minister Seth Terkper has reiterated his belief that the Ghanaian economy’s medium term prospects are very bright despite the current challenges.<\/p>\n
Delivering a lecture at the University of Ghana on the prospects of the economy, the Minister based his prediction mainly on an expanding services sector and improvements in oil and Gas infrastructure in the country.<\/p>\n
This is contrary to the groom picture painted by the Institute of Statistical social and economic research (ISSER) in its 2014 State of the Economy report.<\/p>\n
Mr. Tekper also said government\u2019s plan to be a net exporter of power is on course and would be realized from next year after the current power crisis is resolved by the end of the year.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
By: Ebenezer Afanyi Dadzie\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chairman of Parliament\u2019s Finance Committee, James Klutse Avedzi, says government will continue to borrow so far as Ghanaians continue to make demands from the administration. In an interview with Citi News, the Ketu North MP said it is insincere for the citizenry to pressurize government for developmental projects, and at the same time criticize government\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":28512,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[38,21,4],"yoast_head":"\n