Ahead of the 2019 budget presentation to be led by Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta on Thursday, a panel of experts have convened at Parliament to predict what the announcement will entail.  

“We can conclude that this budget will be virtually empty. And I have my reasons,” said Minority Spokesperson on Finance Cassiel Ato Forson on the Super Morning Show.

He explained that this year alone, between January and August, there has been an eight percent deviation in revenue. Never have deviations of this sort happened in Ghana’s history, he said.

Forson also observed that big corporations like Guinness Ghana Breweries are only required to pay company taxes at 25 percent. But small and medium-sized businesses making GH¢10,000 or more are paying a tax at 35 percent.

“[Small businesses] don’t have incentives. The tax system has not been fair to them and it is not in the interest of the country,” he said, adding that “we do not have a revenue problem. We have an expenditure problem.”

But Smart Sarpong, Deputy Director at the School of Graduate Studies at Kumasi Polytechnic refuted those claims. He told Joy FM’s Daniel Dadzie that small businesses pay a tax at 28.4 percent, not 35 percent as Forson claims. And those taxes only affect entrepreneurs who pay themselves.

Meanwhile, Dr. Priscilla Twumasi Baffour, a lecturer at the University of Ghana’s Department of Economics, expects Ofori-Atta to address how the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) has impacted revenue.

Also, Baffour is interested in seeing government make a commitment on infrastructure and government programs like “one district, one factory,” a policy aimed at job creation through the manufacturing of factories in each district in the country.

“How many are on board? And how far along are we?” she questioned.

“The themes and policy initiatives of the budget are important to me,” said Joy Business’ Philip Nanfuri, who says he’s noticed slight increases in the price of everything from fuel to food.

But most importantly, Sarpong anticipates that there is a full commitment from government to not leave the average taxpayer burdened in debt.

During the budget presentation, he said, “we are expecting real hope.”