The presentation of the mid-year budget review by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has been rescheduled to Thursday, July 27, 2023.
The Second Deputy Majority Whip, Habib Iddrisu, announced this in Parliament on Friday when he presented the business statement for next week.
The presentation was initially scheduled for July 25 after a proposal by Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin for it not to be done early.
The Tolon MP said the change in date was on account of a formal communication from the Finance Ministry.
However, First Deputy Minority Whip, Ahmed Ibrahim, expressed worry about the rescheduling.
“The parliament and the Church of Pentecost (CoP) are holding a development conference. The date 27th was chosen by the right honourable speaker and upon that the former president and the current president and Members of the Parliament are all invited and are all going together with the speaker. So when the speaker gave the date, that date had been used in making all the adverts,” he said.
He continued, “And beyond that when the house was mentioning the 27th, the tentative idea was that the house was to go on recess on the 9th of August and the speaker said 9th of August may be too late for the house to go on adjournment because the house is supposed to adjourn on the 3rd August and due to that if the mid-year budget review is presented on the 27th, it will be to close to the 3rd August. So combining these two issues, thus the joint conference by parliament and the CoP and the closeness of the date of adjournment, the speaker entreated the house to present the mid-year review on 25th,” he said.