Akufo-Addo delivering hell – Ato Forson

The Minority Spokesperson on Finance, Casiel Ato Forson says the Akufo-Addo led administration is delivering hell to Ghanaians contrary to the juicy promises made prior to the 2016 elections.

According to him, Akufo-Addo’s key promise of moving Ghana’s economy from taxation to production has completely failed to materialise.

“We heard Akufo-Addo before the elections…he said they will move this country from taxation to production. NPP promised heaven but they have delivered and continue to deliver hell to us all,” the former deputy Finance Minister told Morning Starr host Francis Abban Tuesday.

Ato Forson’s comment comes after he claimed at a Minority Breakfast meeting on Monday that the government was planning to increase taxes in the mid-year budget review statement to be presented to Parliament.

Ato Forson added “amidst deliberate misrepresentation of the facts about our debt position, its computation and rationale for borrowing, they also claimed to possess the magic to mobilize domestic resources to finance their campaign promises. They dismissed borrowing as “a lazy approach” to economic management and promised a different paradigm.”

“Contrary to these claims, our public debt has ballooned to GH¢ 154 billion (excluding the Energy Bond of GHC 4.7 Billion) as of May, 2018 from GH¢ 122 billion in January, 2017,” he stated noting “it is expected to increase further by GH¢3.8 billion – (1.7 billion + 1.4 billion + 0.7 billion)–should the financing plan specified above, i.e. selling state assets, prepayment of license fees, and monetization of mineral royalties, fail to materialize.”

But government has dismissed the projections by the opposition party describing them as baseless.

According to deputy Information Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, government is only seeking to widen the tax net and include other working Ghanaians who are not contributing their quota to the nation.

He added that the minority made similar projections last year which turned out to be false and urged Ghanaians to patient and wait for the Finance Minister’s presentation on Thursday.