GHANA- Monday, July 20, 2020,/ https://africanpostonline.com/ The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta will present the government’s mid-year budget review to Parliament, this week.
Mr Ofori-Atta says the budget review will focus on strategies to generate more revenue for the state after the Coronavirus pandemic has thwarted government’s plans and also extend support to businesses and industries which have been affected by the pandemic.
“We need to look at the stimulus for the Small Micro and Medium Enterprises. The discussion with the banks was also for them to increase facilities to support the businesses which are much larger and to look at ways of deferring interest payments for at least the next six months.” He said.
Presentation of the mid-year budget review to Parliament is per Section 28 of the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921). The presentation of the statement on the review of government projections for the 2020 financial year will be backed by a request for supplementary estimates. However, the Coronavirus pandemic has affected government projections for the 2020 financial year to a large extent.
Among other things, the Minister is expected to provide Parliament, a clear plan on ways the government intends to repay the GHC 10 million it borrowed form the Bank of Ghana as well as the 219 million dollars transferred from the Stabilization Fund to the Contingency fund to assist in dealing with the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Earlier this month, the Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG) and SEND GHANA called on the government to scale up agriculture spending and prioritise the sector to save livelihoods, as it prepares its mid-year budget review and supplementary estimates for 2020.
Speaking at a public forum organized by the aforementioned organizations, Professor Godfred Bokpin, an Economist, said, the food index in Ghana has surged since the country reported its first case of Coronavirus disease and the fear of COVID-19 collapsing economies.
He further argued that scaling up agricultural spending in the mid-year budget, not as a favour, but as a necessity will help sustain the economy of Ghana and protect livelihoods. He urged the government to improve and scale-up efficiency in existing agriculture sector interventions such as subsidy on fertilizers among others.
Source: Deborah Narkoah -African Post Online
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I’m Deborah Aba Narkoah. I’m an avid reader, writer and public speaker.
