2002 appropriation bill passed

Parliament on Monday passed the 2002 Appropriation Act that gives the government the power to spend 16.3 trillion cedis, its intended expenditure for the year.

The Government would exhaust its expenditure on March 31 hence the Act. This year's wage bill totalled 3.1 trillion cedis while Transfers to household including Pensions, Gratuities and Social Security Fund climbed up to 713.3 billion cedis.

Interest on External debt tallied 919.2 billion cedis while government pays 2.1 trillion on domestic debts. Principal repayment on external debt is 1.969 trillion cedis. 367.9 billion cedis would go into the District Assemblies Common Fund, 460 billion into the Road Fund and 329.2 billion into the Education Trust Fund.

Other discretionary payments including VAT refunds, highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Financed Expenditure and Utility Price Subsidies came up to 2.1 trillion cedis.

In another development, the House passed the National Reconstruction Levy (Amendment) Bill. The bill seeks to explicitly exclude rural and community banks from paying the levy.

Mr Yaw Osafo Maafo said although the original bill sought to exclude the small banks from paying the levy, the language of the law was not very clear on the issue. The new bill also seeks to state that levy was different from the ordinary tax so firms enjoying tax holiday could be eligible to pay the levy.