Former Minority leader, Haruna Iddrisu, has criticized the government’s review of the 2023 budget, describing it as a mere attempt to please the International Monetary Fund (IMF) rather than prioritizing the needs of the Ghanaian people and the struggling private sector.
He questioned the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, about the government’s return to the IMF despite previous claims of incompetence and indiscipline associated with seeking IMF assistance.
He was commenting on the budget review presented by the Minister of Finance on Monday.
Haruna Iddrisu referred to previous statements by the Finance Minister in the 2019 budget statement where he hailed the government’s effort to exit the IMF program, emphasizing macroeconomic competence and discipline.
He then questioned the government’s credibility in managing the economy, stating, “It’s now evidently present that you are incompetent and you are indisciplined, and you call yourselves better managers of the economy.
“Why are you back at the IMF if in 2019 you said exiting the IMF was the best thing to happen to this country?”
According to Haruna Iddrisu, the decision to return to the IMF indicates mismanagement of the economy by the Akufo-Addo government.
He refuted the Finance Minister’s claim that there were no new taxes, asserting that there were also no revisions of taxes.
He argued that the mid-year budget should have addressed stakeholders’ demands for a downward revision of taxes, particularly the COVID tax, which he believed should have been discontinued since the pandemic’s impact has subsided since 2020.
He stressed that taxes act as a burden to businesses, affecting profitability and job creation.
The former Minority leader’s critique of the budget review revolves around the government’s prioritization of IMF conditionalities rather than addressing the needs of the Ghanaian people and the private sector.