Parliament begins debate on 2014 budget
The debate on the 2014 Budget started yesterday with Members of Parliament from the Majority and Minority sides expressing varied opinions about the document.
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The first day of the debate was characterised by hecklings from the two sides of the House, compelling the Speaker of Parliament, Mr Edward Doe Adjaho, to sometimes interprete the rules of the House to ensure sanity.
The budget was presented to Parliament by the Minister of Finance, Mr Seth Tekper, last week Tuesday.
Majority argument
The Chairman of the Finance Committee of Parliament and MP for Ketu North, Mr James Klutse Avedzi, who seconded the motion moved for the acceptance of the budget, and said between 2009 and 2013, the government through sound economic policies and priority interventions had more than doubled Ghana’s GDP in nominal terms.
He stated that the real GDP growth for Ghana averaged seven per cent in recent years in spite of all the known challenges, explaining that the seven per cent GDP growth rate was much higher than the Sub-Saharan African average of 4.9 per cent and the global average of 4.9 per cent.
“Mr Speaker, despite the short-term challenges, Ghana has won the confidence of the international markets with stable market bond performances as well as the successful issue of the second international sovereign bond which was over-subscribed to the tune of $5 billion”.
Mr Avedzi said even though the inflation figure for October, 2013 was 13.1 per cent as a result of the effect of fuel and utility price increases and demand pressures, the situation would not be the same for 2014.
Touching on the rising public debt, the MP said even though people were justified in questioning the phenomenom, he wondered why those people did not stop asking the government to stop providing the numerous infrastructural needs of the country.
“The internationally accepted Debt/GDP ratio is 60 per cent and Ghana is even below this level. I think it is better for the government to borrow to provide for its citizens and pay for it later than wait for the people to suffer for fear of borrowing simply because of Debt/GDP ratio.
When he took his turn, the NDC MP for Ketu South, Mr Fifi Kwetey, said the government needed to be commended for working hard to make Ghana’s economy a shining example.
He said the NDC inherited a battered economy which was characterised by high inflation, galloping inflation, TOR debt with the Ghana Commercial Bank on its knees, and the government had worked assiduously to make the economy resilient and strong.
Minority’s argument
Contributing to the debate, the Minority Spokesperson for Finance, Dr Anthony Akoto Osei, said the contents of the budget left no one to doubt the fact that the 2013 fiscal year had been a challenging one.
“The directive to freeze new contracts, the imposition of nuisance taxes on condoms, cutlasses, fishing nets, taxes on mobile phones, the delay in payment of statutory funds (DACF, GETFund, NHIL, Road Fund, SSNIT payments, among others) were all designed to ameliorate the situation”.
“The truth is that what we have experienced in 2013 thus far is simply a hangover from the excessive, profligate expenditures that accrued in 2012. The chicken has come home to roost and we better deal with it”, he said
Dr Akoto Osei argued that even though economic growth for 2013 was reported to be about 7.4 per cent, lower than the targeted 7.9 per cent, except in 2011 when as a result of commercial production of oil, GDP growth reached 15 per cent, between 2009 and 2013, economic growth had not exceeded the 8.4 per cent achieved in 2008 under former President Kufuor’s administration.
He added that it was clear that the government’s appetite for debt acquisition was beginning to constrain the country’s fiscal space, adding that the public debt which stood at $8.1 billion at the end of 2008 was projected to rise to $23 billion at the end of 2013.
For his part, the NPP MP for New Juaben South, Dr Mark Assibey-Yeboah, noted that even though the Ghana Shared Growth and Development Agenda ends this year no successor plan had been undertaken and therefore wondered which national development plan the 2014 budget hinged on.
“The minister has talked extensively about a programme based budget. The budget that was presented last week has no strategic underpinnings”, he said, questioning the basis for which it was presented.
The debate continues tomorrow