Finance Minister presents mid-year budget review today
Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta, will present his midyear Budget
Review and Economic Planning to Parliament Monday, July 31, 2017.
The presentation is in fulfilment of the constitutional mandate
requiring the Minister to give an account of the performance of the
economy before the commencement of the second half of the year.
The Presentation today will not see a request for an additional budgetary allocation from the House, reports indicate.
If speculations that Mr Ken Ofori-Atta will not request additional funds are true, then it will a major departure from the norm.
The speculation that the Minister will not to seek additional
approval for expenditure from the Legislature also comes in the face of
caution that the government may miss its budget targets as its first
half performance has not been encouraging.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies for instance warned that government
will miss its 2017 budget target should it fail to spend in critical
sectors of the economy.
The IFS argues that government’s refusal to pay valid arrears and
invest in infrastructural development for the first half of this year
has impacted heavily on economic growth.
The Executive Director of the IFS, Professor Newman Kusi explains
that the cut in some critical expenditure has affected economic
performance so far.
“The cuts in expenditure have been affected; those that we actually
need such as the capital spending, earmarked funds, payment for goods
and services among others. But then again the government has its hands
tied at its back because it cannot cut back on wages and salaries,
interest payments, etc and these together take a disproportionate share
of the revenue that is collected,” he stated.
Some of the key areas that Mr. Ken Ofori Atta is expected to touch on
is revenue shortfalls, impact of declining commodity prices on economy,
government debt levels as well as progress with the International
Monetary Fund (IMF).
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