The Minority Leader in Parliament, Hon. Haruna Iddrisu has passed a vote of no confidence in the Akufo-Addo government, describing it as a “Farewell Sermon.”
According to the Minority Leader, the 2020 budget is an unimpressive budget which could a verdict of no confidence and enough basis for the New Patriotic Party to be kicked out of office.
Mr Haruna was reacting to the 2020 budget statement and economic policy presented to Parliament on Wednesday, 13 November 2019 by Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta.
In seconding a motion for the House to adjourn after the Budget was presented, the Tamale South lawmaker described the Budget as “One uninspiring budget deserves an exit”.
Making his assessment amidst booing and banging of tables from both sides of the House, the Minority Leader said the government has done a poor job at alleviating the plight of Ghanaians, insisting: “Ghanaians are worse off under the Akufo-Addo government than the erstwhile Mahama administration”.
The Finance Minister had claimed during his presentation that the government has restored the ill economy it inherited back to health, noting: “One good term deserves another”.
He accused the previous Mahama-led administration of recklessly issuing contracts without any plans to pay for them.
According to him, this has contributed to huge legacy debts which the government had to settle after taking office in January 2017.
He claimed the Mahama government left huge public debt as a result of “awarded billions of cedis worth of contracts without knowing about how to pay for them. It was a case of living for today and leaving tomorrow to take care of itself”.
He also accused the previous government of taking unwise economic decisions and imposition of taxes on basic goods and services which overburdened citizens.
“The previous government resorted to some draconian fiscal measures, notably the increase in the tax burden of many activities including taxes on condoms, cutlasses as well as Kayayei,” he explained.
But again, some minority MPs disagreed and described the Finance Minister as the one rather recklessly borrowing without anything to show.
Source: therepublicnewsonline.com/Felix Nyaaba
