Government must call for a dialogue to come out with economic policies to strengthen the economy, formerPresident John DramaniMahama has suggested.
“The government must swallow what is left of its pride and create a platform for urgent and constructive dialogue among stakeholders with the view to fashioning out a robust set of policy responses to the economic challenges before we get to the point of no return,” he said in a statement in Accra on Monday and copied to the Ghanaian Times.
“As a result of the horrendous low point we have now reached, it is very clear that urgent intervention is required to avert a total collapse of the economy,” former President Mahama stressed.
He said the NDC “stands prepared to aid in the salvage effort because inaction is not an option in the face of disaster. The clock is ticking very fast and the time to act is now.”
In a statement from the Office of the Former President titled “Time is ticking for the crisis-ridden Ghanaian economy,” Former President Mahamasaid the “Ghanaian economy is in deep crisis, a crisis marked by huge budget deficits, an unsustainable public debt, rising inflation, a rapidly depreciating currency, ever rising cost of living and a loss of confidence by both domestic and international investor communities.”
He said the effects of the ‘deep economic crisis’ had been severe hardships and suffering for the people of Ghana, especially those within vulnerable groups, adding that “in face of serious economic crisis, the government continue to burden the citizens with harsh and regressive taxes, and mentioned the E-Levy as one of the harsh taxes.”
“Like one drowning and yet clutching at mere straw to stay afloat, this government has banked all its hopes on the E-Levy, which, given the gravity and depth of the problems that have beset our economy, is neither adequate nor viable as a sustainable response to the crisis,” Former President Mahama said.
He said the it was painful that the government had no viable or credible plan “of action to get us out of the current economic doldrums into which they have plunged us; meanwhile, there can be collective buy-ins from the Ghanaian people, development partners and the investor community that are being ignored.”
“How come we do not have a much needed Post-COVID-19 Economic Recovery Plan that would lay down a firm blueprint for fiscal consolidation in the face of a worsening economic situation?” he queried.
Former President Mahamaemphasised that the government must as a matter of urgency, borrow a leaf from the NDC’s “sound approach toward the challenges we faced in 2015,” where the NDC “immediately convened the Senchi.”
“The knowledge shared at Senchicrystallised into our Homegrown Fiscal Consolidation Programme, which we eventually presented to the IMF for support. The IMF agreed entirely with our homegrown strategy whose implementation restored stability to the economy and laid the strong foundations that this government, just as the World Bank in 2016 forecasted, profited from between 2017 and 2020,” he said.
BY TIMES REPORTER
