The following is the verbatim transcription of the reaction of the Minority in Parliament, led by Minority Leader, Cassiel Ato Forson, to the 2024 Mid-Year Budget Review, presented to Parliament by Finance Minister, Mohammed Amin Adam. The Minority said the government is leaving behind a bankrupt legacy as it exit power.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press. We have just listened to the Mid-year budget review of the Minister Responsible for Finance.
You will agree with me that typical of this government, this address was uninspiring, bereft of new ideas, gives no hope, and fails to offer a roadmap for addressing the numerous problems facing the people of Ghana.
This mid-year review leaves many people disappointed and uninspired. It gives no hope to the people of Ghana, and anything this government has said, and has done over the last seven and half years, they’ve done nothing to reverse the negative trend. In the last eight years, the Akufo-Addo-Bawumia government has burdened the ordinary Ghanaian and businesses with a number of taxes, making Ghana a high regime.
These taxes include e-Levy, Covid Levy, an effective VAT rate of about 32%, a distorted Value Added Tax regime, and betting tax, a borla tax, in other words, a sanitation levy, a high tax on petroleum products, an emission levy, high import taxes, fees and charges across all sectors of the economy and over 40 new taxes in the last seven and half years. These days some taxes have made Ghana unattractive for investment and foreign direct investment.
As a result, many Ghanaian businesses are relocating to Togo and Ivory Coast, among others. In fact, last week, I heard of a company moving from Ghana to Benin Republic. Ghana has lost so many jobs opportunities as a result of the relocation of these businesses.
This adds to the already high unemployment situation, due to the fact that the government has failed to create new jobs. As a result of high import duties and levies at our ports, Ghana is no longer an attractive gateway to West Africa. Our ports, particularly the Tema Port has lost almost 50% of its traffic with its further job losses. Living in Ghana is now exceedingly difficult as the cost of living has now become unbearable.
Ladies and gentlemen, many Ghanaians are unable to put food on the table for their families and loved ones. People can simply not make ends meet. In fact, krom ayɛ she, krom ayɛ shesheeshe. That is the true state of our country. The high food prices are one of the major problems facing the people of Ghana today. Yet this media review did not provide a roadmap to arrest the escalating food prices. Planting for Food and Jobs was a monumental failure, despite the billions of dollars of cedis that have been spent so far on the programme.
The greatest threat to our national security today is youth unemployment and food insecurity. These two factors are fuelling the loss of confidence in our democracy, revealed in the recent Afro barometer Report on Ghana. Yet, this mid-year review failed to address these two major concerns.
At the very least, the NDC minority caucus expected nothing less than the removal or the abolishing of the following new taxes; the e-Levy, the Covid levy, the betting tax, the borla tax, the emission levy, the VAT on domestic consumption of electricity and addressing the distortions of the value added tax regime.
The government will be remembered as the government that has left Ghana behind with the following; bankrupt economy, default or yɛntumi ntua economy, a haircut economy, debt-riddled economy, over-taxed economy, high inflation economy, high food inflation economy, a shrink-flation economy, a high monetary policy rate economy, a high lending rate policy rate economy, a high unemployment economy, and an extremely high youth unemployment economy, a misery or ahokyere economy, a collapsed state owned enterprises economy that they are leaving behind, a collapsed cocoa sector economy, a bankrupt bank of Ghana, a bank of Ghana that is positively insolvent to the extent that they are not in a position to generate enough revenue to run the affairs of the central bank, and bankrupt Cocobod, a high food inflation never witnessed in the Fourth Republic and the highest youth unemployment never witnessed in the Fourth Republic.
This is the legacy of the NPP/Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government, bereft of new ideas, gives no hope, and it fails to offer a roadmap for addressing the numerous problems facing the people of Ghana.
Let me assure you that the National Democratic Congress and the minority in parliament are aware of the following. We are aware of the hopelessness of our youth who cannot count on the government for jobs. We’re also aware of the suffering of the ordinary Ghanaians who cannot afford three square meals a day. We are aware of the unbearable hardships confronting the good people of Ghana and businesses. We are aware of the collapsed state-owned enterprises such as the Ghana cocoa board. In fact, we are aware of the insolvent Bank of Ghana, we are aware. We are also aware that the rich have become a middle class, the middle class has become poor, and the poor have become poorer, with the World Bank estimating that 33% of Ghana’s population will move to extreme poor by the year 2025. We are also aware that this government is leaving behind a high tax regime. And overall, we are also aware, among others of the poor governance that this government is leaving behind.
The NDC pledges, our pledge is to confront these challenges head-on beginning January 7, 2025.
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