News:
June 4, 2020
Ranking Member of the Committee on Finance, Cassiel Ato Baah Forson has taken a swipe at government and pointed out that in times of pandemic they should prioritize and re-programme rather than seeking to print currency.
According to him, printing of ten billion Ghana cedis as announced by the Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta would only translate in high money supply growth in the cause of the year and further translate into high inflation.
He further pointed out that as a result of what government want to do when inflation comes it is going to, “steal from every Ghanaian and imposition of inflation tax as prices of goods and services are going to go up”.
“The Finance Minister should tell us exactly what they are financing we cannot sit down for them to print money to finance expenditures that can be avoided in this time of pandemic what countries do is to look at their budget and prioritize”.
In a media briefing, Mr. Ato Forson pointed out that he was thinking government would cut down on its Ministers to help cut down on government expenditure on fuel.
“Sadly they are saying the central bank should print money instead of going through their budget to re-programme what we in the Minority are seeing from the financing side the fiscal deficit we can project would be fifteen percent to GDP this would be something that Ghana has never witnessed before”.
The Ranking member made known that they on the Minority side of the House are worried and the House should not allow the Ministry of Finance to print the ten billion cedis as their side would resist.
“They are only using it to finance election promises particularly election expenditure which is avoidable and it is a waste and should not be allowed. They have breached the threshold, the fact that UK or America is printing does not mean we should copy blindly”.
.Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com