National Youth Organizer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), George Opare Addo, has stated that the 2022 budget presented by Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, failed to address some of the existential threats facing young people and their determination to rise up from poverty through hard work and enterprise.
According to him, the youth has every right to be disappointed in the budget because it does not include a comprehensive plan to create jobs for the many young people out of school without jobs, vocational or professional skills in this hardened economy.
“In the absence of creating jobs and equipping you with the right skills to be employable, this administration must not look to further burden you with more inconsiderate policies that will make life more unbearable for us. Government has no justification whatsoever on the position it has taken”.
George Opare Addo
Mr. Opare Addo underscored in a statement that times are really hard, especially for the Youth and “like many of you, we are alarmed and disappointed that such a heartless budget will be presented by the New Patriotic Party government. After all, preparing a budget is one of the most basic responsibilities of any government”.
“But it appears no innovative and critical thinking went into the preparation of this budget, thus falling short of addressing our needs as a people. More importantly, for the Youth of Ghana, this budget was far from our reality, our hopes and aspirations.
“Reading the entire document, one cannot ignore the singular theme that reflects in those hurriedly written lines; the hardheaded and irresponsible posture to the plight of the Ghanaian people. It is not surprising how Ghanaians have responded to the thoughtless budget presented for the 2022 fiscal year, and rightly so because the scourge of this budget will be borne by the people”.
George Opare Addo
Budget as inspiration to the masses
The National Youth Organizer of the largest opposition party in Ghana highlighted that everywhere, when budgets are presented, it inspires hope amongst the masses, as it offers government’s thoughtful and considerate blueprint to alleviate the suffering of the people and improve on the socio economic wellbeing of the masses. But “what our finance minister presented is far from that and a direct ‘insult’ to the Ghanaian people especially our industrious young people”, he lamented.
The Youth Organizer of the NDC disclosed that his outfit will present a petition to parliament on why the Youth of Ghana is against the 2022 budget.
“We empathize with you and oppose vehemently these new taxes and increases in some levies as well government fees. We recognize that Majority of entrepreneurs who rely on electronic payments to run their businesses are young people and this draconian tax will adversely affect you. Thus, the proposed 1.75% levy on electronic payments will be counterproductive. We are sorry that this government, under the guise of widening the tax bracket is oblivious to our plight as young people and has resorted to taxing every service that makes our lives easier”.
George Opare Addo
Government needs a better approach to collect revenues
Mr. Opare Addo admitted that there is the need to increase government’s revenue but believes government adopted “a lame approach to tax almost every service and product that is used by young people to achieve that”. As such, he urged the government to find a way to patch up the revenue loopholes and come up with an innovative way of effectively collecting taxes.
“It is their responsibility to implement the right stop-gap measures and comprehensive plan to generate more revenue rather than resort to a tax driven agenda to exploit our already drained pockets. While we wait and observe what will be the Legislature’s position on this budget, government must focus on efficiently generating revenue by considering innovative schemes to ensure tax is collected effectively and accounted for, while creating jobs and opportunities for young people”.
George Opare Addo
Mr. Opare Addo emphasized that the major desire of young people in Ghana is a government that is considerate of their plights and who will work hard to ensure that the lives of the young people are better and not the opposite “as we see with this insensitive government”.
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