IMF bailout will ensure government does not overspend – Samoa Addo
Going to IMF will be disastrous – Finance Minister
Legal practitioner, Nii Kpakpo Samoa Addo, has urged the government to go to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for financial assistance to help resolve Ghana’s current economic challenge.
According to him, current efforts by the government to introduce taxes will not resolve the government's revenue mobilisation challenge but a bailout by the IMF will give government funds as well as some disciple.
In an interview with Asaase Radio, Samoa Addo said the conditionalities that come with IMF support will ensure that the government would be disciplined in the way it spends.
“…This tax will not solve the problems of Ghana. Let them go to the IMF and get some discipline when it comes to the management of the economy. So that there are some checks and they will be bonded by those checks. And at least, when they’re given any money by the IMF they know, that the conditionalities will ensure that they don’t spend the way they like,” he was quoted by Asaaseradio.com
He said the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta is not willing to go to the IMF because an IMF bailout will imply that the government has failed.
“…He (Ken Ofori-Atta) doesn’t want to go to the IMF. And he has even indicated that if the E-Levy is not passed, the other resort will be for us to go back to the IMF. That’s one of the things this government does not want to do. Because going to the IMF, for them is literally an admission of failure,” he stated.
He further stated that going to the IMF would give the government some credibility.
Nii Kpakpo who is also a member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) added that NDC parliamentarians were not willing to pass the E-Levy because their constituents are telling them they are overburdened with taxes.
“What we’re saying is that go to the IMF. Go to the IMF for credibility because as you (the government) are now, even if we were to support any measure in respect of this tax, number one, our constituents will not forgive us. The NDC supporters are Ghanaians. The persons that the minority represents are telling the MPs that do not authorise this tax because we’re already burdened with taxes.
Ken Ofori-Atta, at the government’s town-hall meeting, to discuss the E-levy on January 27, 2022, said the government was willing to go to the IMF for advice but not for a bailout.
According to Ofori-Atta without the E-Levy government would be forced to go into an IMF programme (bailout) which would be disastrous for the country
Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta