Former presidential staffer and member of the National Democratic Congress' (NDC) communications team, PV Jantuah Dadson Boateng, has described the 2023 Budget and Economic Statement presented by Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta as useless.
Speaking in an Otec FM interview monitored by GhanaWeb on December 2, PV Jantuah said that the finance minister failed to mention any concrete measures to help resolve the country's revenue mobilisation efforts but rather proposed measures that will put more burden on the few taxpayers in the country.
He added that despite the challenges in the country, the government is doing nothing to significantly cut its expenditure, with its expenses exceeding its revenue by almost GHC 70 million in the 2023 budget.
"Anybody with very little economic knowledge knows that this budget is very useless. Go to page six (of the budget statement); Ken Ofori-Atta is saying that he has a seven-point agenda, and number one is aggressively mobilising domestic revenue.
"And under that, he is saying that we should increase VAT rate by 2.5 percent to directly support roads and the digitalisation agenda... If somebody gives you these under aggressively mobilising domestic revenue, will you take that person seriously?
"The man is simply out of order; Ken Ofori-Atta is simply inept when it comes to finance... what he is saying is that the government is going to continue to burden Ghanaians who are already paying taxes, leaving those who do not pay taxes," he said in Twi.
Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, during the presentation of the 2022 budget, announced a proposed increment in Value Added Tax (VAT) of 2.5 percent for consumers of goods and services.
The move, according to the minister, is expected to improve the government's domestic revenue measures while seeking to reach an IMF deal to restore macroeconomic stability.
"Mr. Speaker, we will undertake the following actions, initiatives, and interventions under the seven-point agenda. To aggressively mobilize domestic revenue, we will, among others: increase the VAT rate by 2.5 percent to directly support our roads and digitalization agenda; Fast-track the implementation of the Unified Property Rate Platform programme in 2023; and review the E-Levy Act and, more specifically, reduce the headline rate from 1.5% to one percent (1%) of the transaction value as well as the removal of the daily threshold," he said.
Watch the interview below
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PV Jantuah Dadson Boateng