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21.10.2016 General News

Terkpe rushes to Parl for GH¢10.9bn

By Ghanaian Chronicle
Terkpe rushes to Parl for GH10.9bn
21.10.2016 LISTEN

 
By Maxwell Ofori, Parliament House
[email protected]
The Minister of Finance, Seth Terkper, has implored Parliament for over GH¢10 billion for expenditure in advance of appropriation to finance government operations for the first quarter of 2017 (January to March) financial year.

In a report of the Finance Committee, presented to Parliament by James Avedzi Klutse, Chairman of the Finance Committee, the Minister of Finance, acting on the authority of the President, requested the House to approve the expenditure in advance appropriation for the said period.

The purpose of the request is to enable the government withdraw monies from the Consolidated Fund to meet urgent and statutory expenses for the first quarter of 2017, pending the approval of an Appropriation Act for the 2017 financial year.

According to the committee’s report, the total amount of GH¢10,999,108,191 the Minister requested would help finance critical government expenditure during the period under review.

The Minister explained to the committee that the request was necessary, due to the tight election calendar, which has made it difficult to come out with an Appropriation Act before the end of the year.


The amount requested is to be disbursed among the various expenditure categories as follows; compensation of employees will take GH¢3,881,345,637; Goods and Services will have GH¢164,220,432; Capital Expenditure, Interest Payment and Grants to other government units will have an amounts of GH¢1,251,883,521, GH¢1,889,870,741 and GH¢2,368,676,114 respectively.

Other expenditure categories included Non-Road Arrears, Tax Refunds and Amortisation which will be allocated GH¢518,456,296, GH¢151,078,450 and GH¢773,577,000.

However, the Ministry of Finance has projected to collect a total revenue of GH¢8,988,080,585 for the first quarter of 2017, adding that the expected revenue will come from both tax and non-tax revenue sources.

The request was a result of the non-passage of Appropriation Act for the 2017 budget statement and economic policy, due to the 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections.

Meanwhile, in line with precedent and best practices, and in accordance with article 180, which states that “where it appears to the President that the Appropriation Act in respect of any financial year will not come into operation by the beginning of that financial year, he may, with the prior approval of Parliament by a resolution, authorise the withdrawal of moneys from the Consolidated Fund, for the purpose of meeting expenditure necessary to carry on the services of the Government, in respect of the period, expiring three months from the beginning of the financial year, or on the coming into operation of the act, whichever is earlier.”

Commenting on the motion after seconding, the Member of Parliament for New Juabeng South Constituency, Mark Assibey Yeboah, expressed worry on how much would be spent from the money requested on interest payments.

He said the understanding of the request was that government would use about 29% of the total amount to pay interests.

He stated that the government’s borrowing has future consequences on the economy of the country.

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