Audio By Carbonatix
Finance Minister, Seth Tekper will present a mid-year review of the government's financial estimates and expenditure contained in the 2015 budget to parliament today.
The aim is to give the House an idea of changes in government’s financial position in the first half of the year and the economic policy direction for the rest of the year.
Mr. Terkper will also outline a supplementary budget to the House as well as measures to sustain recent economic gains made especially with regards to the value of the cedi.
The review is likely to touch on revenue targets and the expenditure.
The Finance Minister earlier this year reviewed the targets in the hope that government will not spend more than 37 billion cedis and raise 30 billion in revenue.
However, due to the cedi's record performance government’s earnings from export are likely to decline if the cedi's gains are sustained.
It is, therefore, important for the Minister to come up with new measures to ensure there is no decline in revenue collection.
Mr Terkper is also likely to review tax exemptions granted to businesses and introduce new administrative measures to improve collections.
He is also expected to review expenditure as the cedi's appreciation against the dollar could result in substantial reduction in interest paid on foreign loans.
Joy Business has learnt that the country’s public debt which has hit 89 billion cedis could reduce substantially in the coming weeks which will affect government’s expenditure.
The Minister is also expected to give government’s assessment of how the economy has performed in the first half of this year as well as the projections for the next five months.
He will also announce some new policy measures to help stabilize the economy and seek parliamentary approval to spend some new revenues that have come in.
Seth Terkper tells Joy News the review would not be too different from the recent one by the International Monetary Fund.
Meanwhile, the minority spokesperson on Finance, Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei explains that the expenditure which the Finance Minister will present to parliament today will be below what was agreed in the 2015 budget.
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