Gov’t commends Parliament for approving 2021 budget

Government has lauded Parliament for approving the 2021 Budget Statement and Economic Policy.

The Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, who was speaking at the Minister’s press briefing in Accra yesterday, said the government is grateful to the legislature for expediting the approval of the document to pave way for it to embark on its policies and programmes for the year.

“The executive branch of government is grateful to Parliament for the approval of the 2021 economic policy document last Friday, March 19. The economic policy for 2021 seeks to engineer, first of all, a recovery from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, and then, secondly, an accelerated rebound to growth and expansion of the Ghanaian economy starting from this year 2021. In particular, it seeks to reduce our deficit, which is escalated from the 4.8 that we brought it to by 2019 to 11% plus because of Covid and related matters,” he said.

He further explained that the first part of the recovery programme seeks to bring it back on the part to sustainability over the next four years to about nine per cent this year, seven per cent in 2022, five per cent by 2023 and under five per cent by 2024.

“This is critical to restore debt sustainability and to restore strong micro foundations to propel the medium term and in the future growth agenda that we are looking for,” he added.

Stakeholders support

Parliament last Friday passed the Budget Statement and Economic Policy for the 2021 fiscal year. The budget, christened “Won Ya Wo Hie”, seeks to rebound an economy that has been dealt a blow by the coronavirus pandemic through programmes such as the Ghana Cares ‘Obaatanpa.’

Prior to the approval of the budget, there was a heated debate between the two sides. The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, put the motion to a voice vote after the debate.

There was an equal ‘YES’ and ‘NO’ vote to the motion. This was followed by a head count, after which the Majority side dominated with 137 YES votes to get the budget approved, as the Minority side had 134 NO votes.

The Minister called on all stakeholders to support government in its recovery programmes and policies to rebound the economy and get it back to its previous state.

He stressed that for government to be able to succeed in its plan to recover the economy, it needs adequate support from all stakeholders.