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The Majority in Parliament has rallied support for the economic policies outlined in the budget, describing them as “sound, sensible and pragmatic”.
They, therefore, urged their colleagues on the Minority side to support those measures by approving the budget statement to spur economic growth and stability.
They made the call last Tuesday when Parliament commenced debate on the economic measures and programmes outlined in the 2024 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the government.
However, the Minority lawmakers argued that the budget was “empty and useless” as it was not responsive to the needs of the ordinary Ghanaian.
The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, presented the 2024 Budget statement to the House last week and moved a motion to approve the budget.
Seconding the motion, the Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, said the economic programmes contained in the 2024 Budget focused on stability, growth and development.
He said every programme in the budget sought to ensure stability and bring down inflation from the mid-30s to 15 per cent by the end of the 2024 fiscal year.
The New Patriotic Party Member of Parliament (MP) for Ofoase-Ayirebi argued that the government was programming an average of 2.8 per cent growth for 2024, a reason a subcommittee had been put together to develop a growth programme to ensure that “we grow beyond the 2.8 per cent”.The growth programme, he said, focused on allocating GH¢3 billion to support the agriculture sector (GH¢700 million for the Planting for Food and Jobs programme and about GH¢525 million to deal with agriculture extension infrastructure across the country).
He said GH¢298 million had been allocated to promote aquaculture and also reduce the importation of fish and create jobs, GH¢1 billion for trade and industry, out of which GH¢123 million had been earmarked to support the One-District-One-Factory programme and about GH¢13 million for other interventions.
“Mr Speaker, tourism, arts and culture received a whopping GH¢175 million in the 2024 Budget to stimulate activities in that sector to grow and create jobs,” he said.
Arguing against the motion, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) MP for Bolgatanga Central, Isaac Adongo, recalled how the Finance Minister touted the need for Ghanaians to celebrate a projected gross domestic product (GDP) of GH?1 trillion, a promise that the people must take with a pinch of salt.
He said it was the same kind of “sweet and juicy promises” the minister told eurobond holders about how he would create “a heaven in Ghana and they gave him the money”.
“Today, you are telling the Eurobond holders that you cannot pay them,” he stated.
He cited how today, 70,000 young people who were engaged under the Nation Builders Corps programme had been left to their own fate despite all the promises by the Finance Minister to pay them.
Mr Adongo also disagreed with a statement by the Finance Minister that every household had been impacted positively by the government’s economic programmes.
He said households were rather impacted negatively when he (the minister) registered growth of 0.4 per cent, keeping many people at home.
Fiscal discipline
The Deputy Minister of Finance, Abena Osei-Asare, said in 2016 amidst favourable global trends with a barrel of oil priced at a modest $43, the then government disappointingly achieved a mere 3.4 per cent growth rate and 15.4 per cent inflation without COVID-19 and Russia-Ukraine war.
Regrettably, she said, fiscal discipline was cast aside in favour of elections and disregard for prudent financial management, derailing the IMF programme.
However, she said in the 2024 Budget, the government was resolute in breaking free from all election-year encumbrances.
“A new trajectory is being chattered by unwavering commitment of fiscal discipline.
This commitment ensures that seduction of election is no more a hold on us.
“We will not divert from this path and we will progress diligently to forge ahead to make sure that we complete this journey that we find ourselves in,” she said.
Reacting to the Deputy Finance minister’s assertion that the current government had a positive track record in election years, the NDC MP for Yapei Kusawgu, John Jinapor, said the deficit in 2016 was six per cent.
