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Terkper deviated; only engaged in propaganda - Nitiwul
According to him, the Finance Minister failed to touch on pressing issues facing the economy and rather went ahead to outline campaign projects the government is undertaking.
Seth Terkper addressing parliament
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“I think that the Finance Minister could have done much better; especially when he started mentioning campaign projects. I felt that he had diluted the essence of what we have been called for. We have been called essentially to look at supplementary budgets. Tells you that government may have had some resources and they wanted to deploy that amount of money to shore up themselves and we thought that the Finance Minister will give us exactly what it is and leave it to Parliament to do the debate and then approve it or not approve it and then it got to a stage where the Members were shouting propaganda and campaign,” he told Accra-based Citi FM.
“The areas we thought that government will be looking at the pressing issues, the energy issues. We want to know what government will have to do to assure the people of Ghana that between now and the end of the year how you will resolve that problem," he said.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Finance Seth Terkper has asked for an additional budget of GHC1.8 billion for various intervention programme for the rest of 2016.
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Mr Terkper made the request when he appeared before Parliament to present a supplementary budget.
According to the minister, the demand has become necessary due to plunge in commodities prices, shut down of the FPSO Kwame Nkrumah and drop in crude oil prices on the international market.
Oil and Gas
Terkper said crude oil prices is now estimated to average a broad range of $40-$50/bbl.
He pointed out that the government had adopted an average crude price of $45.35/bbl.
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Also, he said total petroleum receipts is now expected to be GH¢1.4bn as against GH¢2bn in the 2016 budget.
IMF Programme
The Finance Minister downplayed claims the IMF programme is in limbo. According to him, the third review meeting with the IMF was held in May 2016.
He added that most of December 2015 targets were met despite reports that the IMF was unhappy about Ghana's posture to the programme.
Nonetheless, Terkper was hopeful the third tranche of the IMF programme would be approved in August 2016.
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Power challenges
Ghana is battling with an excruciating power supply that is affecting businesses and making citizens uncomfortable.
Despite the challenges, Terkper said the power sector has benefited from significant investment.
He noted that the country's installed capacity is enough to meet current demand.
He also disclosed that access to electricity in Ghana is over 82%.
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He blamed the current power challenges on the lack of supply from
West Africa Gas Pipeline though it emerged today that gas supply cut was due to unpaid bills by the government.
Public debt
Terkper highlighted the decline of public debt from 72% at the end of 2015 to 63% at the end of May 2016.
He noted that this is the first time post-HIPC that Ghana has slowed down the rate of growth of debt.
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He said the government would continue to use smart borrowing measures to ensure sustainable growth within the medium term.
According to him, GH¢986m of domestic debt was paid off with Eurobond proceeds.
GDP Growth
Terkper told MPs the economy grew by 4.9% in the first quarter of 2016 and added that government would persevere in bringing down Ghana’s debt level which stands at GHC99.9 billion according to the Central Bank figures.
He said for the first quarter of 2016; industry declined by 1.1%. Agric sector grew by 2.8%.
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Assurance
Concluding his statement on the floor of the House, Terkper assured the nation that government will resist budget overruns, manage the public debt, fiscal discipline, investment in infrastructure and ensure that the Electoral Commission is adequately funded for this year's elections.
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