Lord Mensah, a Professor at the University of Ghana Business School, has thrown a subtle jab at the managers of economy, specifically Ken Ofori-Atta, the Finance Minister, suggesting that his actions of continuously running a budget deficit is the reason for the economy running aground.
According to the economist, it is extremely dangerous for the government to spend in areas that do not generate revenue. He thus indicated that one of the reasons the country ends up going to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is due to spending on areas that do not build up into the revenue generation for the government.
Contributing to a discussion on the passage of the tree revenue bills, Prof Mensah said “if you read the budget and you create a deficit, definitely you must finance the deficit”.
“I always say that business is in the deficit but if you don’t take care and you continue to project yourself by reading a budget which has a huge deficit you will end up bringing the economy to a halt and especially when you are spending in areas that are not building up into revenue generation then trust me, you will be running your economy and you will end up with IMF.”
Lord Mensah
Akufo-Addo Administration Deceive Ghanaians
Meanwhile, a former Acting Chief Executive Officer of the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA), Sam Pee Yalley, on his part, said that the Akufo-Addo administration deceived Ghanaians to move the economy from taxation to production. “Since the assumption of office of the government, the President has introduced taxes upon taxes,” he said.
“We [NDC] have been very loud about their deception. If you deceive Ghanaians that you are going to run an economy from taxation to production and then we are not seeing the production, it is more and more taxes and we celebrate that we have imposed more taxes on Ghanaians. A government is put in place to resolve problems not to compound problems.”
Sam Pee Yalley
Parliament by 137-136 majority decision passed the three revenue bills on Friday, March 31, 2023.
The bills are the Income Tax Amendment Bill, Excise Duty Amendment Bill, and Growth and Sustainability Amendment Bill.
The government is seeking to generate approximately GH¢4 billion per year to supplement domestic revenue. Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta earlier appealed to Parliament to pass the three bills to help in facilitating the deal that Ghana is seeking under the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Speaking at a forum in Accra, Ken Ofori-Atta said, “So if I may be permitted to use the word fellow Ghanaians, we are a blessed nation…I am more convinced now than ever that we are a blessed nation”.
“A week ago I was in China to meet their Finance Minister and various institutions about support for an IMF programme and the Lord certainly went ahead of us. Ghana is a big country, the Minister of Finance is a big man but the Minister of Finance of China gave us the Ghana delegation almost an hour and a half conversation. Not only did he do that he also called the chairman of the Exim Bank of China to join him to talk through these ways in which they can facilitate to make sure we get our IMF transaction.
“So indeed America is ready for us, we saw Kamala Harris here, Germany has been here, the Europeans are behind us, the Fund is behind us. It is left with our Parliament. It can’t be that we shoot ourselves in the foot. Let us rally behind our Parliamentarians.”
Ken Ofori-Atta
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