The Minority in parliament is utterly disappointed with the mid-year budget’s inability to address the current economic hardship that the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) has plunged the nation into.
The minority further stressed that the budget was a depiction of a government that lacked ideas to address the challenges their incompetence had created.
Their statement follows the presentation of the mid-year budget review by the Minister in charge of finance, Honourable Amin Adam.
At a press conference addressed by the Minority Leader, Honourable Cassiel Ato Forson, who contended that the address was uninspiring, bereft of new ideas, gives no hope, and also failed to give a roadmap for addressing the numerous problems facing the people of Ghana.
He stressed that the mid-year budget review had left many disappointed and hopeless.
Rather than addressing the myriads of challenges the Akufo Addo-Bawumia regime had burdened Ghanaian with.
He confessed that his side’s expectations were that the ruling government would have scribed the obnoxious e-levy, covid levy, VAT rate of about 22% a distorted value added tax regime, a betting tax, bola tax(sanitation levy), a high tax on petroleum products, an emissions levy, import taxes, and over 40 new taxes and fees in the last seven to eight years.
The burdensome taxes have made Ghana unattractive to foreign direct investment.
Sadly, he disclosed that those burdensome taxes have forced many businesses to Togo, Benin, Cote D’ivoire and attractive destinations which matter he expressed disgust about.
The Minority Leader noted that Ghana has lost many job opportunities following the relocation of those companies.
The government’s failure to create jobs, he decried has worsen the excebating unemployment menace.
He alleged that the Tema Port has lost almost 50% of it traffic at the port amidst job losses.
He added that, “Living in Ghana has become unbearable as cost of living is astronomically skyrocketed making it difficult for people to put food on their table”.
Honourable Cassiel Ato Forson boldly disclosed, ” planting for food and job was a monumental failure despite the millions of cedis investored making youth unemployment a national security threat”.
He continued, “at the very least, the NDC minority demands the abolishment of the e-levy, covid levy, the betting tax, bola tax, the emissions levy, and the VAT on the consumption of electricity, the distortions of the Value Added Tax regime”.
He said ,”the Akufo Addo-Bawumia regime would be remembered for leaving a bankrupt economy, a haircut economy, yen to m3n tua economy, overtaxed economy, high inflation economy, high food inflation economy, a shrink inflation economy, a high monetary rate economy, a high lending rate economy,a high unemployment economy,a extremely high youth unemployment, a misery economy, a collapsed state enterprises economy, a collapsed cocoa sector economy, a bankrupt Bank of Ghana economy, a Bank of Ghana that is positively insolvent unable to generate money to run the affairs of the Central Bank, a bankrupt COCOBOD being the legacy of the Akufo Addo-Bawumia government”.
Report by Prosper Kwaku Selassy Agbitor, Parliament
