Interest groups and economists are urging government to take advantage of the mid-year review to attempt to put the economy back on track.

The call comes ahead of Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta's presentation of the 2022 Mid-Year Budget Review in Parliament later today, July 25.

The groups are of the belief the review should be an opportunity for government to equally be upfront on the state of affairs and announce some measures to alleviate the plight of Ghanaians.  

According to Economist Prof Godfred Bokpin, the Finance Minister must provide key data on the state of the economy, especially on its tax policy and impact on Ghanaians.

“It will be good for the Minister to use this opportunity to tell us what savings have been made and how those savings have been applied,” he added.

Also, the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) says government should not introduce any new taxes.

According to Joseph Obeng, GUTA expects the government to implement measures to ensure compliance. This, the spokesperson of GUTA claims is due to the high inflation trends that have occurred as a result of cost accumulation.

“We are not expecting the introduction of new taxes neither are we expecting that the old range of taxes be increased,” he said.

Again, the Centre for Development Initiatives wants government to protect social intervention programs with the aim of protecting the poor.

Alexis Danikuu, the Executive Director for CDD said: “We are looking forward to see how the Finance Minister will let us know what has been the gaze in terms of the revenue rationalization and all those leakages we have put in place to ensure that we bring in more revenues.”

“To what extent are we going to use the more revenue and rationalization to be able to meet the areas of the social intervention programmes? he quizzed.