Ghana's future has been knocked upside down - Otchere Darko

Gabby Asare Otchere Darko, the former Executive Director of the Danquah Institute (DI), a think tank, has described the future of Ghana as bleak giving the substance of the 2015 budget statement.

According to him, the Mahama-led Administration's slogan of ‘Better Ghana has gone sour’ due to the hardship Ghanaians are going through without any solution in sight.

“The Better Ghana agenda has gone sour. Ghana's anticipated bright future has been knocked upside down by a forklift of corruption, incompetence and wickedness,” he posted on his Facebook Wall.

This comes after the presentation of the Economic Policy and Financial Statement for 2015 before Parliament by the Minister of Finance, Seth Terkper; in which government is hoping to raise about Ghc44 million through taxes and external sources.

However, one of the items in the 2015 budget which has caught the attention of many Ghanaians is the proposed 17.5% hike in taxes on petroleum products.

“In addition, Mr. Speaker, we propose the following tax measures for implementation in 2015; Imposition of Special Petroleum Tax of 17.5 percent as part of rationalization of VAT regime and change in the petroleum pricing structure”, the Minister of Finance stated.

Seth Terkper further asserted that “this policy comes with a mitigation account to manage extremely low and high prices that result in sporadic price increases or decreases under the automatic adjustment formula”.

But the immediate past Director of the DI is of the view that “Ghana's anticipated bright future has been knocked upside down by a forklift of corruption, incompetence and wickedness”.