The minority caucus in parliament is not hopeful that the 2022 budget would yield any benefit to Ghanaians and the country’s economic outlook in general.
According to leader of the minority group, Haruna Iddrissu, “nobody should expect anything other than an exacerbation of the hardships Ghanaians are going through already”.
He posited again that “I don’t expect any rosy economy and Ghanaians should expect hardships at the beginning of 2022”.
He made this known on the Joy SMS on Wednesday November 17, some hours before the budget reading commences.
Some members of the ruling government such as Kojo Oppong Nkrumah have disclosed that the budget would benefit young entrepreneurs looking for support to fuel their businesses however, Haruna Iddrissu shared a divergent view.
Kojo Oppong Nkrumah tweeted that “today is expected to be a good day for young Ghanaians looking for support to fuel their business ideas”.
He added that “local industry can expect measures that will make their products more competitive while dealers benefit from same measures to source the same products locally”.
But the Tamale South MP lamented that “today, they would only exacerbate the sufferings, today they would only exacerbate the hardships, today they will only exacerbate taxes, today they would only exacerbate growing unemployment with its consequences on standards of living and the suffering of the Ghanaian people”
The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, will be presenting the 2022 budget and economic policy of government on the floor of Parliament today, Wednesday, November 17, 2021.
The exercise is in line with Article 179 of the 1992 Constitution and Section 21 (3) of the Public Financial Management Act, 2016, (Act 921).
The minority leader argued that any revision of the benchmark value will come with it a 30% increase in goods and services.
While calling on government to be disciplined in its expenditure, he declared that the economy is on a path of unsustainable debt due to government’s continuous spending.
On the issue of taxes, Haruna Iddrissu intimated that “increasing taxes is just one way of raising revenue. The other way is to reduce profligate expenditure”.
He cautioned that the finance minister must not accumulate arrears and hide it from Ghanaians, a situation he believes will come to haunt the nation.
