Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has made his case to Parliament, justifying the suspension of the Fiscal Responsibility rules for the 2020 financial year.

The Finance Committee of the House expected to deliberate on the reasons presented by Ofori-Atta and present same to the plenary recommending approval or disapproval.

Section 3 of the Fiscal Responsibility Act provides for the suspension of the rules.

The Acts permits the Finance Minister to suspend the rules — which are maintaining a positive primary balance and keeping the debt to GDP ratio at five percent or better – and then presenting his reasons to Parliament for approval.

In the absence of this, the Finance Minister is liable to a vote of censure if the rules are breached.

With the impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic, the government has made it clear the fiscal responsibility rules cannot be met.

The Finance Minister says for President Akufo-Addo to meet the alleviation programmes being rolled out for Ghanaians to mitigate their woes, the rules must be suspended.

Speaking to JoyNews’ Joseph Opoku-Gakpo, Mr. Ofori-Atta says he is confident MPs would buy his arguments for suspending the fiscal responsibility rules.

But the NDC MPs have already hinted of causing a vote of censure to be passed against Ofori-Atta.

The Minority says Ofori-Atta already breached the rules before moving to have them suspended.

Speaking to JoyNews Thursday, Minority MP on the Finance Committee John Jinapor insists they will not support approval of the request to suspend the Fiscal Responsibility Act.

He says the additional ¢11.8 billion the minister has requested for in the supplementary budget estimates are not meant for Covid-19 expenditures making the suspension of the Act unacceptable to them.