Professor Peter Quartey, Economist
The 2021 Budget statement of Ghana is to be delivered on Friday, March 12, 2021, at the chamber of parliament for approval and consideration.
According to Economists, it doesn’t matter who reads the budget but rather the content should be able to capture policies that will help raise revenue to grow the economy.
Renowned Economist, Professor Peter Quartey has stated that: “We are recovering from a recession and therefore this is not the time to promote or produce an austere budget but rather a post-recovery budget, a budget that will help the economy recover and I would want to see in the budget new ways of raising more revenue to finance some of the physical investment that will promote private sector development, so the CARES programme of government where are we going to get the resources to Finance them, I would like to see that, I will like to see ways of financing capital expenditure.”
The annual budget which is read on behalf of the president by the Finance Minister is likely to see a different face read it to the house and general public at large due to the unavailability of Mr Ofori Atta.
He further explained that: “oftentimes when we are constraint we cut down on capital expenditure and invest the proceeds on other things like the wages and salaries and the likes, we still have to set aside some amount of money to invest because it's only when you invest that you can grow, I would like to see more of that, then also some medium-term strategies to reduce our debts and because of COVID-19 our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio has gone beyond the treasury, we want to see some medium-term strategies to reduce our debts.”
Names of Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia and Trade Minister Alan Kyerematen have come up as a replacement to read the Budget statement in Parliament.
