The minority caucus in Parliament is accusing Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson of manipulating figures during his budget presentation on Tuesday, March 11, 2025.
Speaking after the presentation of the 2025 budget to Parliament on March 11, 2025, former Finance Minister Dr. Amin Adam said the minister manipulated the figures in a deliberate attempt to create a misleading impression of economic distress.
“The fiscal program was what the minister tried to use to misinform Ghanaians about the economy we handed over to them. The minister was quoting a fiscal deficit on a commitment basis of about 8.3% and a primary balance of 3.7% deficit. Ladies and gentlemen, these are cooked figures. They have manipulated the data, and we know how they did it,” he stated.
The lawmaker indicated that the government introduced a new line item termed “unreleased claims,” amounting to GHC 49 billion, to distort fiscal data and exaggerate the reported deficit.
“But I can tell you that we left a surplus balance. When we interrogate the data, Ghanaians will know that we left a surplus balance of 0.7% on a commitment basis,” he added.
Meanwhile, he has taken a swipe at the Minister stating that the announcement to scrap betting tax was also misleading because the previous government did not collect betting tax.
He also criticised the government’s US$10 billion “Big Push” initiative. Despite frequent references to the US$10 billion target, only US$800 million has been allocated in the budget for the project.
“How can they claim to spend US$10 billion when only US$800 million has been allocated?”.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
