DOWNLOAD: 2020 Ghana budget read by Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta

Finance Minister Mr. Ken Ofori Atta has just delivered the 2020 Budget statement in Parliament.

Download a copy of the full statement below:

INTRODUCTION

1. Right Honourable Speaker, Honourable Members of Parliament, on the authority of His Excellency the President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, I beg to move that this august House approves the Financial Policy of the Government of Ghana for the year ending 31st December, 2020.

1. Mr. Speaker, on the authority of His Excellency the President, and in keeping with the requirement of Article 179 of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana, and Section 21(3) of the PFM Act 2016 (ACT 921), may I respectfully present the Budget Statement and Economic Policies of Government for 2020 to this Honourable House.

1. I also submit before this august House, the 2019 Annual Report on the Petroleum Funds, in accordance with Section 48 of the Petroleum Revenue Management Act, 2011 (Act 815), as amended, and a Report on the African Union 0.2 percent Import Levy.

1. Mr. Speaker, this statement is an abridged version of the Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the Government of Ghana for the 2020 Financial Year. I would like to request the Hansard Department to capture the entire Budget Statement and Economic Policy.

1. Mr. Speaker, in substance, 2019 has been a very good year for Ghana. This is the year that one can confidently say that God’s blessing of the hard work is beginning to manifest, putting us on a positive trajectory for a proper lift. I say so because:
   1. We have won some painful but necessary battles for God and country;
   2. We have quietly but incontestably achieved significant structural changes for the economy;
   3. We have stabilized greatly the macro-economic turbulence that was all too regular a feature in the management of the national economy;
   4. We have delivered on our flagship programmes;
   5. Mr. Speaker, the gains made so far are significant.
   1. It is proper to put this budget into perspective to understand how far we have come. On Thursday, 2^nd March 2017, I had the honour and privilege to present the first budget of President Akufo-Addo to this House. At that time, as you may recall, the economy was in a very bad shape, suffocating under a mixed weight of debts, arrears, very high cost of living, high youth unemployment and the worst growth rate since 1994. Moreover:-
      1. Growth in agriculture was declining;
      2. Industry growth was in the negative;
      3. Interest rates were high;
      4. The banking system was weak;
      5. Unemployment was rising; and
      6. Businesses and households were working mainly to pay off their utility bills.
      1. Mr. Speaker, the poor state of public finances, weak policy implementation and lack of policy credibility resulted in Ghana requesting an IMF bailout in August 2014. The economic model being practised at the time was a simple, unexamined formula of tax, borrow and spend without a focus on production. The previous government resorted to some draconian fiscal measures; notably the increase in the tax burden on many items and activities, including condoms, cutlasses as well as ‘kayayie’.
      1. Mr. Speaker, a freeze was imposed on the public sector from employing people. There were cuts to a number of areas of spending, most notably were cuts to research allowances for lecturers, nursing training, and teacher training allowances. Yet, the government then was awarding billions of cedis worth of contracts without knowing about how to pay for them. It was a case of living for today and leaving tomorrow to take care of itself.
      1. President Akufo-Addo’s maiden State of the Nation Address captured the situation and his Government’s attitude towards it succinctly: “Too much time, energy and resources were spent in the past, in my view, without a deliberate, conscious assessment of their impact on jobs, and whether or not we were spending wisely to improve the lives of the people, communities and businesses. But, I was not elected by the overwhelming majority of the Ghanaian people to complain. I was elected to get things done. I was elected to fix what is broken and my government and I are determined to do just that.”
      1. Mr. Speaker, that is exactly what we have done within the last three years. The President had set out his vision and programmes in clear language in his maiden address. He said this within the context of an economy that was seriously challenged; the full extent of which we were yet to discover. And yet, by January 2017, the nation was hopeful because change had come. In the 2017 Budget, we illustrated the NPP Government’s expectations, aspirations and hope for Ghana’s future, using the miracle of Jesus when he fed 5,000 people with 5 loaves of bread and two fish. We also declared that the budget was going to “sow the seeds for growth and jobs”.
      1. Quite apart from the fragile structural policy and worsening macro-fiscal situation passed on to us, this Government had to also address serious contractual commitments. The exorbitant energy bill from expensive, difficult-to-explain ‘take or pay’ of Power Purchase Agreements; a pile up of unpaid arrears and outstanding commitments, mostly accrued from contracts awarded without the slightest care for the public purse.
      1. Mr. Speaker, if you add the cost of cleaning the financial sector challenges to the long list of legacy bills that the Akufo-Addo government had to settle, the cost to the Ghanaian tax payer is around GHȼ33 billion.
      1. Mr. Speaker exactly 2 years, 8 months and 12 days later, I stand before you to declare that indeed God has been gracious. His favour has shone on our nation and it is because, in my humble view, we, their new leaders, choose to serve His people rightly and sincerely.
      1. Mr. Speaker, thankfully, we came in with a plan, stayed focused, kept our discipline, kept our promises and managed to strike a balance between maintaining fiscal discipline and supporting businesses and households with tax reliefs, yes, we dared to abolish all manner of nuisance taxes. Despite the limited resources at our disposal, we implemented our plan which included the introduction of stimulus packages for some viable but struggling businesses; increasing spending significantly on social services, and implemented our flagship programmes.

Full speech downloadable below:

Source: Daily Mail GH

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