Ahead of the mid-year budget review, Chairman of the Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament, Samuel Atta-Akyea, is confident government will prioritize making revenue measures effective.
The mid-year budget review which was earlier slated for this week was postponed due to the government’s engagement with the IMF for a bailout program. All other things being equal, the budget is expected to be presented on the 25th, July 2022.
The fiscal policy measures which were captured in the 2022 budget to generate more revenues and undertake transformational projects have so far performed below expectation.
The measures were expected to help generate about GHS100.52 billion by the end of the year, but the first quarter results which have been released indicate that only GHS16.71 billion has been raised, less than a quarter of the projected revenue
Citing the inability of the electronic transfer levy to rake in the budgeted revenue as an example, Chairman of the Mines and Energy Committee of parliament, Samuel Atta-Akyea said he expects the Finance Minister to introduce additional measures that would increase revenue, especially with the IMF coming on board.
“I’m tempted to conclude that he’s going to look at the revenue measures. For example, we know that the e-levy did not generate what we were expecting. What is he going to do to ensure that we rake in some revenue so that we’ll be able to tackle our developmental agenda? These are some of the concerns,” he said to Citi Business News.
“The IMF program is not worked out yet. Engagements are still going on so we can’t bank our hopes on it. We need to have a firm program where the IMF will not tinker with our Free SHS. We don’t know what will be stopped or not, and whether we’ll come back to normalcy so the government programs can go on.”
Inflation
On the issue of inflation, Samuel Atta-Akyea lamented the impact of global economic shocks on the rising inflation in the country.
He contends that no country has been spared the fiscal implications of COVID-19 and the Russian-Ukraine war and Ghana is not an exception.
Currently, inflation stands at 29.8 percent.
Still speaking to Citi Business News, Atta Akyea said the economy can only bounce back when the global pressures lessen.
“In this hour of the day, we know that all the economies of the world are going through strain. The inflationary pressures we are discussing in Ghana have some externalities that we can’t control. If we eradicate the COVID and the Russia-Ukraine situation worldwide, the normalcy of the world will return and in that normalcy, the economy can be affected.”