The Minority Caucus in Parliament has referred to the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta’s press conference on measures to deal with the current economic crisis in the country as “Voodoo Economics”.
Briefing members of the Parliamentary Press Corps on Thursday, shortly after the Minister had address journalists on measures the government is taking to ensure that the economy is brought back to its feet, the Honorable Member of Parliament (MP) for the Bolga Central constituency, Isaac Adongo, who is also the deputy Ranking Member on the Finance Committee of Parliament described the Minister’s measures as ‘Voodoo Accounting’.
He wondered how the revenue and expenditure of the government could be the same, if not through voodooism. According to him, Ghana lost markets assess the very day the 2022 Budget statement was read and that no serious foreign businessman anywhere will listen to Ken Ofori Atta’s lectures and still have confidence to invest in the Ghanaian economy. This according to him is because the international community has on three consecutive occasions declared Ghana as a country close to economic distress close to.
“Ken, we are tired of these your figures,” he emphasized.
Hon Adongo queried why the government is so keen on borrowing 2billlion Ghana Cedis, insisting that “the government is treading on dangerous grounds”.
We will never support E-levy in any form
On his part, the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, said, his side will never support the controversial E-levy “today or tomorrow”. He alleged that the Minority side has been magnanimous enough to help the government approve its budget statement for the 2022 fiscal year, however, with the E-levy which he described as ”an unpopular and money tax” the Minority will never support it.
Restore the Road Toll
Hon Iddrisu charged the government to restore the road toll system to ensure revenue for the country. He maintained that since its cancellation about three months ago, the state has lost a lot of revenue. Its restoration he noted would generate a lot of revenue for the country’s road sector.
According to him, the government has no right to cancel that levy, and that nowhere in the world has road toll been cancelled with such impunity.
The Minority leader contended that judging by the Finance Minister’s Press Conference, no adequate measures has been scheduled to deal with the country’s economic crisis.
By S. O. Ankamah