News:
August 5, 2016
Parliament has approved the GH₵1,888,203,387 supplementary budget estimates requested by the Finance Minister on behalf of President John Dramani Mahama for the 2016 financial year.
The supplementary appropriation was also subsequently passed by the House.
The approval was however not without a heated debate from both sides (Majority and Minority) of the floor of the House.
Minority Spokesperson on Finance and MP for Old Tafo, Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei, Thursday, told the House the estimates will not make any impact to the Ghanaian economy.
MP for New Juabeng South, Dr. Mark Assibey-Yeboah on his part told the House that Seth Terkper lied to the legislature when he painted a very good picture of economy when he appeared on July 25, 2016 to make the request for the supplementary estimates.
According to him, the country’s pursuit in the issuance of another Eurobond has hit a snag because the nation was not truthful to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Said despite the government promising the IMF of passing into law zero financing, the country ended up passing the Bank of Ghana Amendment Bill with 5% financing.
This, he noted, is having a rippling effect on the economy, a testimony he said should convince Members from both sides of the House to vote out ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), come December 7, 2016.
But the Minority Leader, Alban Sumani Bagbin contributing to the debate said the country has witnessed a transformation under the current regime and the supplementary estimates will go a long way to boosting the economy.
On July 25, 2016, Seth Terkper appeared before Parliament and requested for the approval of the supplementary estimates in view of recent developments in both domestic and global markets.
He said although crude oil prices were rising, it was still below what the government projected for in the 2016 budget.