Finance Ministry withdraws supplementary budget over errors

The Minority of Parliament has revealed that attempts are being made to withdraw some estimates contained in the supplementary budget submitted to Parliament on Wednesday by the Finance Minister, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor.

The Minority spokesperson on Finance, Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei said the reason being cited for the withdrawal of the estimates is that, there were errors in some of the figures submitted to Parliament.

The MP for Tafo-Pankrono told Joy FM on Friday that withdrawal attempts were improper and that, what the Finance Minister should have done was to write formally to the leadership of the House to notify them of the withdrawal.

According to the former Finance Minister in the NPP administration, although the supplementary budget booklets submitted to the MP's are being withdrawn, it won't affect the Paper that has been laid before the house.

The MP stated that the parliamentary select Committee would go ahead with its work on the supplementary budget as planned with the debate on the budget starting next Tuesday.

The supplementary budget submitted Wednesday sought for an additional Gh¢2.6 billion. This would add up to the GH¢19 billion already approved by parliament in the 2012 budget.

A chunk of the supplementary would be on public sector wages, subsidies on utilities, petroleum products, the elections and some social intervention programs.