The minority party in parliament has slammed the 2023 budget that Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta unveiled yesterday in Accra.
The NDC members claimed that the budget is useless and offers the youth of the nation no future.
The minority finance spokesperson, Dr. Cassiel Ato Baah Forson, claimed that the budget gave young people little hope, particularly in light of the imminent hiring freeze.
Additionally, he stated that due to the controversial e-Levy headline rate being reduced from 1.5% to 1% of the transaction value and the deletion of the daily threshold, the exemptions formerly given to citizens would be abolished.
“This means that Ghanaians would start paying taxes on the little money they send, including even GH¢10,” he said.
The budget provides no hope for the youth, traders, and everybody because taxes will go up,” he stated.
In addition, he claimed that the minister’s admission that a debt restructuring will take place after talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) showed that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo had lied to Ghanaians when he said “there will be no haircut.”
“The only debt that will not be part of the restructuring will be Treasury Bills. This means that all external debts, including Euro bonds, will get a haircut,” he emphasized.
Moreover, he predicted that the budget for 2023 would be one of severe and extreme austerity.
As a result of the budget’s failure to include appendices with the real numbers for scrutiny, the spokesperson claimed that it was nothing more than simple grammar.
“Indeed, the Ghanaian economy is in an intensive care and the kind of dozes presented will only lead to our death,” he concluded.
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Conclusion
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