Debate on the supplementary estimates and the mid-year review of the 2014 budget presented by the Minister of Finance began last Thursday with the two sides of the House expressing opposing views.
While the Minority described the review as "bad news" and an address which failed to state what measures would be put in place to deal with the numerous economic challenges facing the nation, the Majority was of the view that it was "full of hope" and a candid appraisal of the nation's economic problems.
The member for Obuasi West, Mr Kwaku Kwarteng, said Mr Seth Tekper failed to state how to lift the country out of its difficulty. He rather presented a bleak outlook.
He said, for example, that the Minister told the nation economic activity in the country would be much slower than expected and that the rate at which the prices of goods and services would rise would be worse than anticipated.
He said the Minister had also said the government would overspend even when not generating much revenue.
All what was presented, he said, was an indication that the government would further mismanage the economy.
"We have fundamental problems facing the economy and what we should have heard from the Minister is how to deal with the problems," he said.
According to Mr Kwarteng, the government had failed to state why the strategies to deal with the economic challenges which were stated in the 2014 budget presented in November,last year, had failed.
"It is because of the corruption and mismanagement, " he said.
The member for Wa Central, Mr Rashid Pelpuo, said the Minister told the nation in a very candid manner the hard decisions that needed to be taken to repair the economy and set it on the path of bigger growth.
He added that Mr Tekper also laid bare the strategies that would be undertaken to mobilise revenue and reduce the budget deficit.
He said the entire nation needed to support the measures and added that if that was done, they ( measures) would succeed.
The Member for North Tongu, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, said the review presented was "very inspiring" as it contained various measures to address the economic challenges confronting the nation.
He said the NDC political tradition had faced bigger economic challenges in the past but had surmounted them.
He noted that in 1982, the country's economic growth was recorded in negative figures yet due to tenacity of purpose of the then government and strategies put in place, the nation witnessed immense economic growth.
The NDC, he said , had the track record.
The member for Wenchi, Prof. George Gyan-Baffour, said the government had borrowed excessively and crowded out the private sector, a factor which had landed the nation in difficulty.
He said the government had not addressed the problems of the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) to enable it to refine oil and instead was using the limited foreign exchange the nation had to import refined oil.
That was part of the reason why the value of the local currency had plummeted.
"Government is not committed to making TOR viable. We have to be responsible as a nation," he added.
The member for Tamale Central, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, said discussion of the nation's economic problems must be done devoid of politics.
He noted that there had been a decline in proceeds from the sale of cocoa a development which had contributed to low revenue.
Mr Iddrisu said the government needed to take a definite decision and negotiate 2015 salaries of the public sector now in order to plan ahead.
With regard to the problems in the energy sector, he said the government was poised to deal with them by, among other things, increasing energy generating capacity.
He called for a reduction in the appetite for imports to save the local currency.
