‘2018 ‘Adwuma’ Budget an un-pragmatic fantasy’ – Sylvester Mensah

Former CEO of National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Sylvester Mensah has described the 2018 budget delivered by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta in Parliament as an un-pragmatic fantasy unworthy to be implemented.
The Finance Minister delivered the 2018 budget dubbed: ‘Adwuma Budget’ at the Parliament on Wednesday, November 15.
Speaking on the budget, the former CEO of the NHIA indicated the budget cannot be guided by practical experience and observation rather the incumbent NPP government will only stress on the theory since they budget cannot be put to play.
“This is more of a fantasy budget. It is not pragmatic. If you look at the theme of the earlier budget sowing seeds for jobs in 2017, looking at the Asempa Budget there is no correlation for the themes in this budget. It manifest clearly. It is just unsustainable…” he explained.
“It’s a very confused arrangement. We need to delve deep into it. I am disappointed. This unrealistic and we are just tickling ourselves and laughing…” he added.
In spite of this, Mr Mensah further underscored the need for the NPP administration to publicly declare their ‘incompetence’ towards their inability to meet their set targets just 10 months in power.
He said the 2018 budget will halt the Private sector businesses from taking loans from banks to flourish their businesses since the government will seek to clear the increasing debt stock through the local banks.
“We have increasing debt stock as at the beginning of 2017 the national debt stock was around 122 billion and as at June it has increased to 138 billion. In 2018, we have a budget deficit exceeding 10 billion and government is financing these debts locally through the local banks of about 70 and over per cent where we are crowding out the private sector from borrowing…” he said.
“We are increasing expenditure of about 100,000 jobs, decreasing electricity bills among others. They should have set clearly they are not able to meet their targets…” he maintained.