The Minority in Parliament has said measures outlined by the Minister of Finance to ease the economic pressure in the country are inadequate.
According to the caucus, the measures announced by Mr Ken Ofori-Atta in response to the worsening economic conditions in the country were knee-jerk and do not address the peculiar problem of the economy.
Addressing a press conference in Parliament, Accra, yesterday moments after the Finance Minister presented his measures, Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, said the measures lacked clarity.
“Our initial response to the Minister of Finance is to state emphatically and equivocally that he has lost touch with reality and not in tune with the state of the Ghanaian economy.
“Our economy today is one that reflects nothing less than a cost of living crisis and a cost of doing business crisis for both businesses and individuals.
“We do not find the measures adequate enough to deal with a country which is in debt distress. His responses are woefully inadequate for a country for which they have inflated the cost of living. We need certainty and clarity,” Mr Iddrisu, NDC MP, Tamale South told journalists.
According to Mr Iddrisu, the announcement by the Finance Minister to cut expenditure whilst spending more on growth areas and social spending only depicts incoherent policy measures.
“We are still not certain how much expenditure cuts he is ready to undertake,” Haruna Iddrisu said as he required that the Finance Minister came clear on same.
He described as unfortunate claims by the Finance Minister that the Minority has not been supportive of government business in the House.
Haruna Iddrisu said his side of the House has been very supportive of government policies but the controversial Electronic Transactions Bill, 2021, which he said was procedurally flawed and could further worsen the economic plight of the Ghanaian.
“We remain opposed to it and will vote against it anytime it comes to the House,” he reiterated.
In as much as he commended government for not tweaking the free Senior High School policy, he said there must be national conversation on the future of education.
He restated the need for government to reverse the cessation of the collection of tolls across the country.
“The state has lost significant amount of money arising out of the closure. We think that it is only proper that it is reintroduced so that we can rake in the needed revenue and use it as a vehicle to promote public private partnership in the development of our road infrastructure.”
On the depreciating cedi, Haruna Iddrisu said the declaration of the Minister to pump US$2 billion into the economy to shore up the cedi would not address the root cause of falling cedi.
“We need to have a national conversation on how to increase our exports and reduce imports and stop this knee-jerk responses to exchange rate falls,” he said.
BY JULIUS YAO PETETSI
