The Finance Minister, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, has told Parliament that the government is not seeking additional funds in the mid-year budget review for 2024.
The minister said the government is rather determined to be more efficient.
“We are not seeking supplementary funds in this mid-year review. We are determined to be more efficient strategic and intentional to entrench fiscal consolidation and strongly promoting growth,” he said during the mid-year budget review presentation in Parliament on Tuesday, July 23.
The government, he assured, is living within its budget and will not overspend.
According to him, the government has reined in expenditures as part of efforts to ensure they are within the 2024 Budget Appropriation.
He claimed that the administration of Akufo-Addo has exceeded the midyear revenue target by 0.2 percent by the end of June 2024.
“In effect, Mr. Speaker, we are living within our means. Indeed, consistent with our programme with the IMF, we are on course to achieving a primary surplus of 0.5 percent of GDP by end of the year.
“We have successfully concluded the second review of our Extended Credit Facility with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which led to the disbursement of the 3rd tranche of 360 million US Dollars, bringing total disbursement to about US$1.6 billion; We have completed the Debt Restructuring programme with the Official Creditor Committee (OCC), covering US$5.1 billion dollars resulting in approximately 2.8 billion US Dollars of debt relief. This means that we will not service our debt to our official creditors from 2023 to 2026;
“We have concluded negotiations with our Eurobond holders, covering 13.1 billion US Dollars, which will lead to a cancellation of 4.7 billion US Dollars of our debt and provide debt service relief of 4.4 billion US Dollars between 2023 and 2026.
“We have concluded our negotiations with five (5) of the seven (7) Independent Power Producers, which will lead to a saving of some of US$6.6 US Billion over the lifetime of the Purchasing Power Agreements (PPAs); We have cleared all outstanding Bank Transfer Advice (BTAs) up to 2022, and working hard to pay BTAs from 2023;
“We have embarked on major reforms of State Owned Enterprises (SOEs), especially those in the Energy and Cocoa sectors, to be fiscally prudent and reduce their risk on the budget,” he said.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana