Four months after the presentation of the 'Asempa' Budget before the floor in Parliament, a review of the budget will be presented by Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta today, July 31, 2017.
The presentation is in line with the Public Financial Management Act (2015), Act 921, which requires the Finance Minister to, not later than July 31 of each financial year, prepare and submit to Parliament a mid-year fiscal policy review.
There was a lot of controversy following the presentation of 2017 budget earlier this year. Minority side in parliament fiercely protested major policies in the budget, tagging the budget as ‘419’. They argued that the budget was full of deception and was one that cannot solve Ghana's present economic challenges.
The budget was however approved 6 days after fierce debate by both sides in Parliament.
Finance Minister today, is expected to touch on specific policies and strategies through which the shortfalls experienced in the first quarter of the year can be addressed moving forward to keep the economy stable.
The budget review will detail among other things, the strategies government intends imploring to revise its revenue targets to correct the revenue shortfalls the country has experienced in the first half of the year, to review the fiscal deficit target of gross domestic product (GDP) for the year, as well as government debt levels and progress with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
