Total payments for the first half of 2009, comprising discretionary and statutory payments, amounted to GH¢4,095.2 million, against a budget target of GH¢4,892.4 Million, Finance Minister Kwabena Duffuor said on Tuesday. Presenting a mid-year review and supplementary budget to Parliament, the Minister said total statutory payments amounted to GH¢1,161.5 million, equivalent to 5.4 percent of GDP, against a budget estimate of GH¢1,299.8 million, equivalent to 6.0 percent of GDP. On year-on-year basis, statutory payments increased by 6.7 percent against the 2008 out-turn. External Debt Service for the period under review was GH¢232.1 million, against a budget target of GH¢371.3 million and an outturn of GH¢359.6 million recorded during the corresponding period in 2008. Principal and interest payments were GH¢125.7 million and GH¢106.4 million, respectively. Domestic interest payments, amounted to GH¢342.6 million, 29.4 per cent higher than the budget target of GH¢264.7 million. The outturn indicates a 78.1 percent increase over the outturn recorded during the same period in 2008. Dr Duffuor explained that the higher-than-projected expenditure on domestic interest payment was due to higher-than-projected domestic borrowing and increases in the cost of borrowing. He said transfers to households, in the form of pensions, gratuities and social security contributions by Government on behalf of public sector workers, amounted to GH¢188.0 million, 19.9 percent below the budget target of GH¢234.6 million and 5.7 percent higher than the outturn for 2008. Transfers to the Road Fund and Petroleum-related Funds totalled GH¢63.7 million, against a budget target of GH¢60.4 million. Of this amount, GH¢61.1 million was disbursed to the Road Fund, indicating a 52.1 percent increase over the outturn for the first half of 2008, and GH¢2.5 million was transferred into the Petroleum-related Funds. A total amount of GH¢135.1 million was released to the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF). This amount was lower than the budget target of GH¢145.9 million, on account of lower outturn for tax revenue. Transfers into the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) amounted to GH¢83.3 million, against a budget target of GH¢108.8 million due to the low performance of domestic Value Added Tax. Transfers into the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) was GH¢116.7 million, 2.4 percent higher than the budget target of GH¢114.0 million and 16.1 percent higher than the outturn for the corresponding period in 2008. The Minister said total discretionary payments for the review period amounted to GH¢2,933.7 million, equivalent to 13.6 percent of GDP. This compares with an outturn of GH¢ 2,839.5 million, equivalent to 16.1 percent of GDP recorded during the same period in 2008. Personal Emoluments amounted to GH¢1,099.7 million, equivalent to 5.1 percent of GDP. The outturn was 1.9 percent higher than the budget target of GH¢1,079.7 million and 39.9 percent higher than the outturn for the same period in 2008. Dr Duffuor said high year-on-year growth in wages was due to the fact that the 2009 first half payments were being compared to 2008 first half wages which had a lower base as public sector salaries were increased in July 2008. Administration expenditure was GH¢167.3 million, 38.7 percent higher than the budget target of GH¢120.7 million. The outturn indicates a 10.2 percent increase over the outturn recorded during the corresponding period in 2008. The apparent over expenditure is due to a re-classification of some salary-related allowances from Personal Emoluments to Administration. Service expenditure amounted to GH¢51.1 million, against a budget target of GH¢51.6 million. On year-on-year basis, Service expenditure declined by 48.0 percent. The decline compared to the level in 2008 reflects the tightening of expenditure resulting from rationalisation of expenditures on travels, seminars and workshops. Total Investment Outlays for the first half of the year amounted to GH¢103.2 million, 35.7 percent higher than the budget target of GH¢76.1 million. Dr Duffuor said foreign-financed capital expenditure amounted to GH¢654.2 million, 7.9 percent lower than the budget target of GH¢710.3 million, but 30.4 percent higher than the outturn for the same period in 2008. He said Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI) and Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) financed expenditures totalled GH¢127.5 million, against a budget estimate of GH¢111.7 million. Of this, GH¢92.0 million was expended on HIPC-related projects and programmes, including an amount of GH¢2.4 million disbursed to Members of Parliament as their share of the HIPC receipts to help the execution of development projects in their respective constituencies. During the first half of the year, a total amount of GH¢83.7 million against a budget target of GH¢127.5 million was spent from the Reserve Fund. Of this amount, GH¢49.2 million was used for the payment of judgment debts emanating from court orders against the Government. During the period under review, a total amount of GH¢292.6 million was paid in respect of clearance of arrears and liquidation of commitments carried over from 2008. The outturn for the period was made up of road arrears of GH¢60.2 million and non-road commitments of GH¢232.4 million. Source: GNA