Members of Parliament will be banned from displaying placards in the Chamber during the budget reading today.
This directive was communicated to legislators last Friday, after the Majority Leader and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Osei Kyei-Mensah Bonsu argued that the trend is against best practice in parliamentary procedures and casts the Ghanaian legislature in a bad light.
The minority was criticized for their behavior during the president’s state of the nation address on Tuesday.
This is not the first time MPs have been cautioned on showing placards on the floor.
In November 2013, the then Speaker of Parliament, Edward Doe Adjaho maintained that it is un-parliamentary for members to display placards in the House.
The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta will today, March 2, 2017 deliver the maiden budget and economic statement of the Akufo-Addo government to Parliament.
This is in fulfillment of Article 179 of the 1992 Constitution. It will be Ken Ofori Atta’s first major economic statement presented on the authority of H.E. Nana Akufo-Addo.
The budget to a large extent will be broadly in line with expectations of Ghanaians, pulling more people out of poverty, and creating a sustainable path of growth for the country’s economy, government officials say.
There is a legitimate expectation of the average class of people to see a reduction of their burden of taxation in the Budget while economists continue to make a case for the nominal rate of taxation to be kept at a lower slab for the taxpayer.
The Budget Statement would also be expected to spell out sources of funding for a number of the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) promised policies including free senior high school (SHS) and reduction in fuel and utility tariffs.
