Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has clarified that the 2023 budget statement and economic policy has not been approved by Parliament as reported.

On Tuesday, it was widely reportedly by media houses that Parliament has approved the budget statement.

According to Mr Ablakwa, Parliament has just concluded its debate and approval of the policy.

Parliament is however yet to approve the specific budgetary allocations to the ministries, which is the second stage of the Budget approval process, he noted in a Facebook post.

Parliament will then proceed to the third stage, which is to consider government's revenue bills.

The final stage is the approval of the Appropriation Bill which is an itemized sum of all approved estimates by the House based on which government can spend in the ensuing year.

Some Ghanaians have criticised the Minority in Parliament for contributing to the alleged approval of the budget.

Reacting to this, Mr Ablakwa stated that "Ghanaians did not give the NDC a parliamentary majority, neither is it an NDC President destroying our economy and introducing bitter policies to further impoverish the citizenry."

Nonetheless, he assured that they shall discharge their duties with "utmost integrity, good conscience, respect and solidarity with the suffering Ghanaians we represent."

The Minority in Parliament has threatened to reject the GH10 million budget allocation to Defence Advisory Services under the Ministry of Defense.

Also, they have questioned why the allocation to the Contingency Vote has increased by over GH400 million from GH999 million to GH1.4 billion.

Some items in the 2023 budget presented by Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, include a reduction in the Electronic Transaction Levy also known as E-levy -from 1.5% to 1%. The GH100 daily threshold has also be removed.

On the other hand, government seeks to increase the Value Added Tax (VAT) by 2.5%.

However, the Minority has registered strong disapproval with the tax measures government is introducing.

Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, argues that in an economy deemed to be in crisis, the e-levy should be at a rate of 0.5%. According to the minority, they disagree with an increase in VAT.

Meanwhile, Parliament is expected to adjourn its third sitting on Wednesday, December 21, 2022.

Source: The Independent Ghana