By Iddi Yire/Elsie Appiah-Osei
Accra, Nov 21, GNA – The debate on the 2024 Budget Statement and Financial Policy of the Government began on Tuesday on the floor of Parliament with an intense argument between the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Majority and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Minority.
Whereas the NPP Majority was arguing in support of the Budget, the NDC Minority was critiquing it.
The Budget was presented to the House by Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, the finance minister on Wednesday, November 15, highlighting Government’s programmes and policies for the fiscal year 2024.
Opening the debate, Mr Kojo Oppong Nkumah, the Minister of Information and NPP Member of Parliament (MP) for Ofoase-Ayirebi, said there was a high debt situation, and many countries were trouping to international partners to try and deal with their debts.
He said the presentation of the 2024 budget comes at a time when growth was challenged; saying “the Ghanaian economy that was growing at an average 7.0 per cent between 2017 and 2019, is now just being growing around 1.5 (per cent) thereabout”.
“So, context within which this economic policy has just been brought to this House is that the economy is challenged, cost of living is high, debt levels are high, and growth is down,” Mr Oppong Nkumah said.
“Mr Speaker, therefore if you are promoting an economic programme, the question is what must this economic programme seek to achieve?”
He noted that an economic programme at this time must seek to bring back economic stability; adding that if inflation were sitting around 50.00 per cent no businessperson no businessman could be satisfied to do business.
He said production rate volatility was coursing the nation’s currency to be depreciating at a level Ghana’s were seeing a couple of years ago and therefore no businessman could happily do business.
The Minister said therefore the first objective of any sound economic policy was to bring back economic stability.
“…Thus, to bring the cost of living down to a level that our fellow compatriots in this country can accommodate.”
On his part, Mr Isaac Adongo, the Ranking Member of the Finance Committee of Parliament and NDC MP for Bolgatanga Central, argued that after seven years in Government, the Akufo-Addo administration had impacted the lives of Ghanaians negatively; declaring that “in fact, it would have been better if you have left our lives the way it was in 2016”.
“Mr Speaker, you impacted our lives negatively, when we were locked out of the capital market. When, for the first time, people who want to lend money on the capital market abroad, when they hear Ghana’s name, they are hiding their money, because when we take it, we don’t pay.”
He said the Government impacted Ghanaians negatively when it collapsed 122 financial institutions and locked up people’s money; and that today people still could not get their money back.
Madam Abena Osei-Asare, a Deputy Minister of Finance and NPP MP for Atiwa East, reiterated that the COVID-19 and the Russia-Ukraine war had impacted negatively on Ghana’s economy, which the Minority in Parliament and the opposition NDC were refusing to acknowledge.
“So, you don’t go out taking numbers without reference to the current global situation, when you do that, it means you are out of touch with reality and that shouldn’t be the case.
She commended the Speaker for the support the Government received from him in implementing the 2023 budget.
She thanked the people of Ghana for their great support throughout the implementation of the 2023 budget.
She said it was their hope that they would continue to entrench the economic recovery process leading to stability and growth in the year 2024.
Mr John Abdulai Jinapor, Ranking Member for the Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament and NDC MP for Yapei-Kusawgu, in comparing the average growth rate between the erstwhile NDC Government and the current NPP Government, said from 2009 to 2016, which was eight years of NDC, the average growth rate in terms of real growth (not normal growth) was 6.47 per cent
This, he said meant that on the average for the eight-year period, the NDC Administration was growing the Ghanaian economy by 6.47 per cent.
“Now I take NPP 2017 to 2024, and (for) the 2024, I used your own projection of 2.80 (per cent), from our 6.47 (per cent) by the end of 2024, you will be growing the economy on an average by 4.30 per cent. And yet Mr Speaker, we handed over three oil fields to this government…,” Mr Jinapor stated.
GNA