2023 Budget To Be Presented This Week

The Business Statement of Parliament this week includes the presentation of the 2023 Budget Statement and Economic Policy.

The budget whose presentation is long overdue will be presented by Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta on Thursday, November 24, 2022.

The budget was scheduled to be presented on November 15 as stipulated by the Public Financial Management Act, however, it was delayed due to the government’s failure to conclude negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on time.

“The discussions that are going on now with the IMF, I think it’s going to take a while. My understanding is that it will go into the first few days of next week around the 10th or so. If that is the case, we then have to string out the negotiations and factor them into the budget”, the Member of Parliament for the Suame constituency said earlier this month.

He added that the delay does not breach the constitution.

The government of Ghana is seeking US$ 3 billion from the Fund if the negotiations go well.

The facility, President Akufo-Addo said, will provide additional funding to support the 2023 Budget and development programme.

Reading the Statement on the floor of Parliament, the Majority Chief Whip, Frank Annoh-Dompreh said “The committee has programmed for the presentation of the 2023 Budget on Thursday, November 24, 2022, and duly, the committee urges members to take note and adjust their calendars accordingly. We have also programmed the debates in such a manner that, we will maximize the time.”

Reports indicate that the over 80 New Patriotic Party (NPP) Members of Parliament who threatened to boycott the budget reading stand by their demand for Ofori Atta to be dismissed.

This is despite a press release from Majority leader Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu that the aggrieved legislators had agreed to keep the Minister at the post until the appropriation bill was passed.

Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini