The Ranking Member on Parliament’s Finance Committee, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson has accused the Akufo-Addo government of mismanaging the country’s resources.
He said the country’s economic hardship should not be blamed on the Covid-19 pandemic but the mismanagement of the current administration.
Backing his statement with statistics on the country’s public debt, Mr Forson stated that the public debt increased from 56% to 76% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) during President Akufo-Addo’s first term in office.
Again, he hinted that in the year 2020, an amount of 55.34% of the country’s tax revenue was used for the purposes of paying interest on borrowed money, which he said, was 46.22% in 2019 – before Covid-19.
“Mr Speaker, how can anybody just turn around and come and blame Covid. The problem is not Covid, the problem is mismanagement that is what the problem is. It is your mismanagement that has created the mess and you can not blame Covid.”
His comment comes on the back of the 2021 budget statement presented before the House by the caretaker Finance Minister, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu.
In his presentation, he announced government’s decision to introduce new levies to help restore the economy following the impact of Covid-19 on the economy.
Deliberating on the 2021 Budget statement in Parliament Tuesday, March 16, the Ajumako-Enyan-Esiam MP indicated that, the new levies proposed by Akufo-Addo is a way to lure the general public into paying the overwhelming debt.
“Mr Speaker today we are confronted with a situation of government saddling us with public debt. Public debt to the extent that we have to pay with the option that Ghanaians must pay in the form of taxes.”
Mr Ato Forson further said the taxes proposed by government are too harsh and is likely to impose hardship on Ghanaians.
“Today they have introduced taxes all of us are worried about, the ordinary Ghanaian is complaining because the taxes are so harsh,” he stated emphatically.
