Government will not overspend in 2024 general elections – Deputy Finance Minister

Deputy Finance Minister Abena Osei Asare noted that measures have been put in place to maintain fiscal discipline in 2024.

According to her, the government will refrain from overspending in the upcoming election.

She was reacting to worries voiced by the Minority in Parliament that the government was going to spend more than its budget in 2024 to fulfil unforeseen campaign pledges owing to the elections.

According to the Minority, accessible records indicate that the government had a 17 percent budget deficit in 2020 due to the elections.

The Member of Parliament for Yapei-Kusawgu, John Jinapor, said, “You said that you have a track record in election year expenditure. For the records, in 2016, go and read the updated data; the deficit was about 6 percent.

Mr. Speaker, I refer to the IMF-Ghana decision May 2023 documents; I refer to page 36, table 2 (A). In 2020, under your regime, election year, your deficit was a whopping 17 percent. It has never happened; no country has that deficit of 17 percent.”

But responding in her debate on the budget presentation, the Deputy Finance Minister “In the past, governments have used election year as auctioning periods, engaging in all kinds of projects to win votes. But this government is committing itself to strong fiscal consolidation and efficient management of existing commitments, in order not to derail the hard-won stability that we are witnessing.”

“Government is not initiating new commercial loan funded projects. Government has also put in an amount of money in the budget to clear their arrears so that we can complete existing projects,” the Deputy Finance Minister said.