Government establishes sub-committee on budget.

Koforidua, Feb. 9, GNA- The President, Mr. J.A. Kufour, has directed the establishment of a cabinet sub-committee to ensure that the 2004 national budget statement was implemented to the letter.

Government Spokesman on Finance, Nana Ohene Ntow, who announced this at a public forum on the budget at Koforidua on Monday, was responding to a question as to whether government would indeed make good on the generous exemptions and rebates granted to some sectors of the economy in the budget.

The questioner, Mr. Kingsley Ahadzi, a teacher, had also complained that expectant mothers and the aged continued to pay for the full cost of their medical bills in spite of exemptions granted them over the years and wondered whether this year's budget would not end up in the same way.

Nana Ntow conceded that governments over the years have not been prompt in extending grants to health institutions to defray the cost incurred on such exempted groups of people resulting in a situation whereby health authorities demanded fees before rendering service.

He explained that it was to reverse such anomalies that the President has directed the establishment of the Cabinet Implementation Sub-committee so as to redress any bottlenecks that might result in the implementation of the budget.

On the requests by some participants that government re-introduces price control system on some products like cement to ensure uniformity of prices, Nana Ntow, made it clear that government's guiding principle now was to allow the market forces to operate.

What needed to be done, however, he explained, was the formation of assertive consumer rights organizations to protect their interests whilst government concentrated on the creation of conducive business environment to enable the economy to grow.

On the timber industry, he said the policy decision to allow the importation of logs free of duty, Nana Ntow explained that it was meant to preserve the dwindling forest cover of the country for posterity and urged timber operators to accept the policy in good faith.

He cited the situation whereby even though the United States had the world's largest oil and gold deposits, yet it is the largest importer of those commodities.

A Principal Economist at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Mr. Kwabena Oku Afari, debunked the notion that revenues were going to fall this year because of the numerous tax relieves announced in the budget.

According to him, recent increases in the national revenue was not mainly due to increases in taxes but rather the impact of a more prudent management of that sector of the economy including the roping in of more tax evaders into the net.

He also attributed it to the 2.5 per cent retention fund granted the revenue colleting agencies, which, he noted, enabled them to acquire the necessary logistics and incentives.

The Eastern Regional Minister, Dr Francis Osafo-Mensah, who chaired the function, remarked that this year's budget statement, had for the first time, "disappointed" some business and transport operators who had rooted for increases in goods and petroleum prices to enable them to take advantage and exploit the public.

"Gone are the days when budget reading sparked off anxiety among the people over the extent of increases of commodities including sugar, cigarettes and various services", he stated.

Dr Osafo-Mensah urged all sections of society to help the government to implement the policies outlined in the budget statement for the economic growth of the country.