Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson, the ranking member of the parliamentary finance committee, voiced dissatisfaction with the elements of the 2018 budget that Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta had submitted.

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He vowed that the administration would be unable to meet its objectives.

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"If you carefully examine the budget, you will notice that it is empty.The figures on the fiscal table do not back up the false promises.

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Ghanaians won't see anything concrete by the end of 2018," he said.

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Former Deputy Finance Minister and Member of Parliament for Ajumako-Besease, Cassiel Ato Forson has taken a swipe at the 2018 budget presented by Finance Minister Ken Ofori- Atta on November 15, 2017.

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The minority spokesperson on Finance who described the budget as an empty promise asserted that figures mentioned by the Finance Minister do not correspond with the reality on the ground.

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“If you look at the budget carefully you will see it’s empty. The promises are empty and are not supported by the numbers on the fiscal table. Ghanaians will end the year 2018 without seeing anything tangible.”

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Cassiel Ato Forson also questioned the Minister’s decision to extend the National Fiscal Stabilization and Special Import levy that was enacted in 2013 as a temporary tax to avert the economic woes at the time.

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“The Minister of Finance said they have turned around the economy, granted that they have turned around the economy, why then are they extending the National Fiscal Stabilization and Special Import levy, the temporary taxes that were enacted in 2013 to deal with the problems the economy was facing at the time?”

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Mr. Forson added that the debt-to-GDP ratio is approximately 73.6 percent but when the Energy Bond and the UT/Capital banks bond are added, the debt-to-GDP ratio will shoot up to 76.8 percent.

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Growth

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He said the boasting by the government to achieve 5.9 percent GDP growth in 2017 and 8.9 percent in 2018 could be misleading.

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That, he said, was because the projected non-oil GDP growth of four percent in 2017 was lower than the realized non-oil GDP growth of 4.8 percent in 2016, while the projected non-oil GDP growth of 5 percent in 2018 was only 0.2 percent higher than the realized non-oil GDP growth in 2016.

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