The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, will deliver a presentation on the mid-year budget review that was prepared for 2023 today in Parliament.
The presentation was rescheduled to take place on July 25, 2023, after having been planned for the 27th of the same month. However, it was ultimately scrapped.
According to a statement released by the Ministry of Finance, “in accordance with Section 28 of the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921), the Mid-Year Fiscal Policy Review of the Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the Government of Ghana for the 2023 Financial Year is expected to be presented to Parliament on Monday, July 31st, 2023.”
During the presentation, an update on the implementation of the Budget for 2023 will be given, along with insights into the performance of the economy and the government’s finances for the first half of the year.
It will explore the measures that were undertaken to stabilise the economy, encourage growth, and offer social protection for the vulnerable as described in the Post-COVID-19 Programme for Economic Growth (PC-PEG), which was funded by the International Monetary Fund.
In the statement that reviews the budget, the focus will be on the forecast, and it will describe the important imperatives that need to be met in order to restore macroeconomic stability and speed up Ghana’s economic transition.
Ofori-Atta to present mid-year budget review today
According to the Ministry of Finance, the concerns that will be brought to the forefront include, but are not limited to, structural reforms in expenditure commitment control and arrears clearance; debt management; financial stability and a growth strategy; and other related topics.
“In line with usual practise, we wish to indicate that the Government will undertake the Post-Budget Engagements to explain the various policy choices to the public,” the Ministry of Finance stated in its statement. “We wish to indicate that the Government will undertake the Post-Budget Engagements to explain the various policy choices.”
The Members of Parliament aspirations.
During an interview with Citi News, members of parliament discussed what they anticipate learning from the budget review that will take place midyear.
They expressed the wish that the government would lower taxes, consolidate the many different types of levies, and increase financing for the educational sector as well as the school feeding programme.
They were also concerned about the high prevalence of unemployment among young people and the lack of fertiliser in the country.
Richard Kwami Sefe, the Member of Parliament for the seat of Anlo, stated that the lack of available fertiliser is having a detrimental effect on farming activities in the area.
According to what he claimed, farmers are having a hard time turning a profit since they are being compelled to pay exorbitant costs for fertiliser. He pleaded with the administration to step in and help resolve the crisis at hand.
“As we talk right now, the majority of my farmers are willing and ready to work, even if it means doing more than what they are already doing,” I said. You will still have access to some of the fertiliser, pesticides, and other boosters, but the price will be prohibitively high.
The price of 50 kilogrammes of NPK fertiliser hovered at GH98 [2021] throughout the past two years. According to the MP for Anlo, “this year we are going as far as GH450 and GH460,” which is a significant increase from the previous year’s increase of GH210.
Paul Twum Barimah, who is the Member of Parliament for Dormaa East, has also voiced the hope that the mid-year budget review will not result in the implementation of any new taxes.
He stated that there are already strains being placed on the economy and that the government needs to concentrate on lowering tax rates rather than raising them.
I have a strong belief that this mid-year review of the budget will not include any new taxes, despite the fact that the entire nation is in an eerie mood.
The Member of Parliament for Dormaa East anticipated that the Minister of Finance would take into account the current position of Ghanaians and determine how the country’s economy should be managed. “My expectation is that the Minister of Finance will consider the current situation,”