Finance Minister to be quizzed on budget

Finance Minister, Yaw Osafo-Maafo, MP would appear before Parliament Wednesday to answer an urgent question on the budget.

The question standing in the name of Mr Norbert Awulley, NDC MP for Builsa South, is: "When will he (Finance Minister) present the 'final' budget statement for the year ending 31st December, 2001 since the one approved by Parliament in March was an interim budget?"

Papa Owusu-Ankomah, the Majority Leader, said this when he presented the Business Statement for the third week, ending Friday, November 2, 2001.

The Finance Minister described the 2001 budget statement presented to the House in March this year as an interim one and promised to come back to Parliament later in the year, to present another budget.

“We have called this an interim budget because it can only be implemented subject to the requirement that revenues and expenditures will be held in such a balance as to avoid the huge deficits of the recent past,” the Minister told the House when he read the budget statement in March.

The Finance Minister’s expected appearance in the House provides a unique opportunity for the NDC minority led by its spokesman on finance, Moses Asaga to quizzze him on the economy.

The Minister for Roads and Transport would also come to the House to respond to an urgent question posed by Mr Steve Akorli, NDC MP for Ho East and former minister for the sector.

Mr Akorli wanted to know from the Minister: "If he is aware of the importation into the country of right-hand drive vehicles currently operating in the Accra Metropolis contrary to the provisions of L. I. 953 and PNDCL 330".

Concerns have been raised about the appropriateness on our roads of the right hand drives, which are already plying between Accra and Madina. The government has been receiving criticisms from sections of the public for allowing the importation and usage of the right-hand-drive vehicles on the roads, without first amending the law which prohibits their usage in Ghana. Other sector ministers to answer questions in the House are the Ministers of Energy, Environment and Science, Education and the Interior.