{"id":373792,"date":"2017-11-15T05:59:56","date_gmt":"2017-11-15T05:59:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=373792"},"modified":"2017-11-15T12:38:26","modified_gmt":"2017-11-15T12:38:26","slug":"ofori-atta-will-present-ahokyer%c9%9b-budget-minority-mps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/11\/ofori-atta-will-present-ahokyer%c9%9b-budget-minority-mps\/","title":{"rendered":"Ofori Atta will present ‘ahokyer\u025b’ budget – Minority MPs"},"content":{"rendered":"
Ahead of the presentation of the government’s budget for 2018 today (Wednesday), some Minority Members of Parliament (MPs), have expressed pessimism about the economy-strengthening prospects of the policy statement.<\/p>\n
The MP for Tamale Central, Inusah Fuseini, described the upcoming budget as an ‘ahokyer\u025b’ budget which translates as ‘suffering or hardship’ budget, suggesting that it would not address the employment or income challenges of Ghanaians.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”3pgLJJEbiGr3pgELJgb4zKkKLXY6qAKv”] According to him, government had failed to meet its revenue targets, resulting in them being unable to fulfill a number of promises and assurances they had made Ghanaians.<\/p>\n
He believes that despite the “fanciful” words that will be used by Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta, in his presentation on Wednesday, the budget will ultimately “produce nothing in the end”<\/p>\n
\u201cThis budget will be an ahokyer\u025b budget.Revenue targets have not been met, commitments to promises have not been delivered, money is not available, there is deep doubt that employment can be created because employment creation is production-driven. Industries must produce and production is demand-driven. And for people to have demand for goods and services, people must have income,” he said.<\/p>\n
“The economy is not expanding because there\u2019s no money. Because there\u2019s no money, industry can\u2019t produce a stockpile and because of that they retrench workers to be able to stay afloat or they won\u2019t employ at all. Because there\u2019s no employment, the teeming masses will go to the public service for jobs. The government won\u2019t spend because they aren\u2019t getting the revenue. In the first three quarters, the government is under-performing in terms of revenue mobilization. There\u2019s no money to spend so how will it provide the impetus for the economy to grow and expand and create the necessary conditions for employment?”<\/p>\n
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Tamale North MP, Alhassan Suhuyini also expressed similar sentiments, stating that there is little hope that the 2018 budget will stimulate the growth of the economy.<\/p>\n
According to the legislator, checks from Ghanaians who had celebrated following the presentation of the 2017 budget in March would show that those same people were in better conditions under the NDC administration.<\/p>\n
He believes that Wednesday’s budget will be “another round of huge doses of bible quotations and sloganeering” which will eventually “have nothing impactful by way of transformation”<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s important that we recollect what was promised and ask ourselves if, beyond the media blitz that greeted the 2017 presentation, there is something on the ground that justifies what we saw. It\u2019s important that we talk to the people at the ports and at Abossey Okai\u00a0who jubilated earlier, as we await the 2018 budget. I am convinced that they will have no other verdict than what the Minority predicted at the time that this was a budget with very little by way of transforming the economy and creating jobs,” Alhassan Suhuyini told Citi News<\/strong><\/p>\n The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, hinted over the weekend\u00a0at the Association of Ghanaian Industries Awards (AGI) dinner, that electricity tariffs\u00a0will be reviewed\u00a0downwards soon.<\/p>\n