Parliament approves supplementary estimates for 2016
Parliament has approved GH¢1,888,203,387 as supplementary estimates for the 2016 financial year.
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The Minister of Finance, Mr Seth Terkper, on July 25, 2016 presented a review of the budget and supplementary estimates to Parliament and the Speaker consequently referred the estimates to the Finance Committee of the House for consideration and report.
In its report presented to Parliament on Thursday, the committee recommended to the House to approve GH¢1,888,203,387 as supplementary estimates.
It noted that Parliament, in December 2015, passed the Appropriation Act which authorised the Minister of Finance to spend GH¢43,505,103,547 on various government expenditure for the 2016 financial year.
The report said the minister, having implemented the approved budget and having regard to the impact of falling commodity prices and the negative impact of irregular power supply on the productive capacity of the economy, decided to review the projected revenue for the 2016 financial year.
It noted that the Ministry of Finance was seeking parliamentary approval to spend GH¢1,888,203,387 for the 2016 financial year.
The report said the expenditure involved a supplementary allocation of GH¢1,888,203,387 to be raised mainly from projected increases in taxes on domestic goods and services and taxes on international trade.
It indicated that the amount would be spent mainly on amortisation.
Debate
The Minority in Parliament said the government did not manage the economy well to warrant the request of GH¢1,888,203,387 as supplementary estimates.
But the Majority said the request was legitimate, since efforts were being made to grow the economy.
Wrapping up the debate for the Minority in Parliament, the Minority Leader, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, said the government had failed to achieve average Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of eight per cent as it had promised.
Besides, he said, the government had talked about achieving a single digit inflation but inflation hovered around 18.2 per cent.
The Minority Leader said it was a shame that the government had not been able to achieve the projected growth rate and accused the government of excessive spending.
He said the supplementary estimates would not get the country anywhere.
"That is why the country is crying for change," he said.
Majority Leader
The Majority Leader, Mr Alban Bagbin, said the argument that Ghana's economy was growing at eight per cent before the discovery of oil could be explained.
"What we had from HIPC was more than what we are getting from the oil revenue," he indicated.
He said in the eight years of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government, not a single senior high school or university was opened.
Besides, he said, the country had been in water crisis.
"Today, all these are things of the past," he said.
Mr Bagbin said the government was performing in terms of growing the economy and infrastructure development but it was rather accused of being incompetent.