Associate professor of economics at the University of Ghana, Prof Ebo Turkson, has called on the government to increase fees of tertiary students in public universities.
According to him, the 2024 budget presentation to be delivered today, November 15, 2023, by the finance minister must reconsider fees of public universities to help bolster the economy. He revealed that when this is done, government’s intervention can reduce to free some fiscal space for it to use to provide the infrastructure that the productive sector needs.
“… Public sector universities charging GHC1,700 fees for a whole academic year for university students is too low. Can we increase it? We know the political economic issues, but can we increase it a bit so that universities can collect enough to fund the cost of training the young men and women at the tertiary level… So, these are choices that the government can decide. ”
Prof Ebo Turkson
Furthermore, Prof Turkson urged government to take a relook at the public sector wage bill by wiping “off the ghost names”. Also, he expressed the need for government to ascertain whether with the number of enterprises that are catered for by government, some can be weaned off the payroll.
Elaborating further on ways government can be on a path to strengthening the economy, Prof Turkson noted that it is important for government to undertake fiscal consolidation. With this, he explained that government must find ways to reduce the extent to which it overruns its budget in terms of the deficit.
“It’s the deficits that will lead us to go and borrow. We’ve mentioned this over the years that there’s so much revenue you can collect up to a point, but if you want to cut down on the extent to which you borrow, then you need to take a look at your expenditure.”
Prof Ebo Turkson
Strengthening Ghana’s economy with viable policies
Moreover, Prof Turkson revealed that he will be expecting to find out the ways in which government is going to detail out how it’s going to rationalize its expenditure.
Additionally, he indicated he would also look out for ways the state will engage in investing in the growth sectors of the economy.
“Because once the economy grows, our debt to GDP ratio declines, we raise more revenue, and we can pay for our debts when we borrow. So, it’s important that the sort of commitment that we make to the Fund in going for their support in terms of expenditure rationalization and increasing our revenue, not necessarily introducing new taxes, but making our revenue collection effort more efficient, reducing our tax exemptions and also introducing such levies that are not going to punish the productive sector…”
Prof Ebo Turkson
Meanwhile, Prof Turkson underscored that government must also find ways to tax the almost 10.7 million structures that in the country. He explained that even if some 7 million of them are taxable and government collects on average GHC1,500 per year on properties in the country, revenues roped in will hover around 1 billion dollars.
“That alone will be enough to support our budget. So, it is important that we look at how we are going to rake in more revenue without introducing any new tax that’s going to affect the productive sector. Take away some of them that are already affecting them in negative ways and become more efficient at collection of taxes and rationalize our expenditure.”
Prof Ebo Turkson
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