A Deputy Minister for Finance, Kwaku Kwarteng, has rubbished calls for the withdrawal of the 2018 budget presented to the House by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta last Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The Minority Spokesperson on Finance, Cassiel Ato Forson, who made the call, had<\/strong><\/span><\/a> stated that government had reviewed some key economic targets without recourse to the House.<\/p>\n [contextly_sidebar id=”M5Z8p3dKwen9XewuIXaV46Tl3cL4GI7Z”]According to him, \u201cThe Minister responsible for Finance cannot revise the expenditures and revenue without parliamentary resolution.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Kwarteng however dismissed these suggestions, saying the Minority\u2019s argument is flawed since government cannot premise its budget on the previous one passed by Parliament, while ignoring the realities on the ground.<\/p>\n \u201cThe point that we should have rather premised the 2018 budget on the 2017 budget passed by Parliament, and we should have ignored the realities and we should have not built future plans on the basis of today\u2019s actuals is a very strange proposition.<\/p>\n \u201cYou do your budget on the basis of actuals because going forward, you want to plan on the basis of reality so for anyone to suggest that because you did midyear review and Parliament did not approve of it, then you are unable to do 2018 budget statement because you would have premised it on the mid year review projections is flawed,” Mr. Kwarteng argued.<\/p>\n About the 2018 budget<\/strong><\/p>\n The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, on Wednesday, November 15, 2017, presented the Akufo-Addo government\u2019s 2018 Budget Statement and Economic Policy to Parliament.<\/p>\n The budget highlighted results from the government\u2019s policy programmes over the past few months, and announced the government\u2019s planned developmental programs for the next fiscal year.<\/p>\n Among the major programs to be rolled out by the government in 2018, are tax relief for private universities, tax holiday for young entrepreneurs, proposed 13% reduction in electricity tariff for residential consumers and 21 for industries, the establishment of a nation-building corps to offer jobs to graduates, and operationalization of the special prosecutors\u2019 office.<\/p>\n The budget, dubbed the \u2018Adwuma Budget\u2019 [Job’s Budget], focuses mainly on revenue mobilization through strict tax collection modules and job creation.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n By: Marian Ansah\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
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