The Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) has asked Parliament to urgently approve the three new revenue bills currently before it. 

Dr Ernest Addison says the country’s success in securing the much-needed IMF bailout hinges on those bills. 

According to him, the country’s creditors are prepared to grant financial assurances in April to enable the government to secure the deal. 

However, Dr Addison insisted that the deal can not go before the Executive Board of the Fund without the passage of the new tax handles. 

“The official creditors met last week, they are looking at a date in April, by which time they expect to give the necessary financial assurances. 

And once that is out of the way, once we have signed this Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), once Parliament has passed these new revenue measures, we would have completed what they call the trial action”.

Dr Addision added, “this is what is needed for the fund to set a date for the executive board meeting. So hopefully if things go as planned, by the end of April. 

Ghana is currently before the Bretton Woods Institution for a $3 billion bailout. 

As a result, the government has renegotiated its domestic debt and is on course with foreign partners as well. 

But the government as a prerequisite for the deal cannot proceed with the new bills passed. 

The bills are the Income Tax (Amendment) Bill, Excise Duty and Excise Tax Stamp (Amendment) Bill as well as the Growth and Sustainability Levy Bill.