2018 Budget Nothing More Than 'Killing Me Softly' Budget

A market woman has described the 2018 budget read by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, on Wednesday as a ‘killing me softly’ budget.

Auntie 'Bea' said the budget has nothing better for people like her and questioned how the government expects to turn the economic fortunes of the country around, when people like her are not considered during the preparation of the budget.

Speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on Friday, the woman who is the Market Queen at one of Ghana’s largest markets, Makola, said traders like her are completely disappointed in the government they struggled to bring to power.

“They have ignored us, they did not consider anything about us. They have left us to our fate and we are struggling to become whatever we want to become,” she said.

She added that after the budget presentation, “When you walk through the market, you see two or more people gathered together and you won’t hear them talking loudly but either you hear them singing ‘kyenkyen bi adi m'awu’ or 'killing me softly'. That is all you will hear.”

She said the traders are so shocked that they are unable to voice out their disappointment and desperation publicly, yet these are people who “cast spells on each other and did everything possible to bring the government into power.”

The Finance Minister during his 2018 budget presentation on Wednesday said that the government was bent on making the economy a business-friendly one.

Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta
It is for this reason that it has introduced tax cuts and have restored macroeconomic stability, which is protecting the value of money in the pockets of ordinary Ghanaians and giving businesses the predictability space to plan and invest, thereby sowing the seeds for economic growth and jobs creation.

The government’s broad agenda for next year is to translate the stability achieved into shared growth with aggressive policies aimed at creating more opportunities for jobs.

But Auntie Bea said all these solutions may only address the problems of people in the formal sector.

For the millions in the informal sector, like her she pointed, have been left to fend for themselves although they “abandoned our goods and followed them everywhere they go [campaigning] and when they are on the seat, they forget about who we are and what we can do."

“We are dying, we are suffering. You put your wares out and nobody is buying, you pack and take them home and bring them back the next day, nobody is buying,” she said.

Siaw Ampadu, spare parts dealer
A spare parts dealer at Abossey Okai, Siaw Ampadu who also contributed to the discussion said the budget means nothing for traders.

He said he listened to the Finance Minister’s presentation and although the economic indicators show that some work is being done, the ordinary person who should feel the change is not.

“If you look at the whole budget, you cannot pinpoint one or two policies that they have put in place for traders in 2018.”

In a response to what he expected in the 2018 budget, he said importers like him were excited when the government abolished nuisance taxes, but duties on imports are still high and they expected the Minister to announce a reduction.

Mr Ampadu said “we all appreciate that the government is doing better for spare parts industry, but immediately they started the paperless programme we started having a lot of challenges."

“They brought in another policy called benchmark values and this raises our duties up more than we expected,” he said, adding that they had expected that the Minister will speak to these issues but he did not.

He rather justified the introduction of the policy, leaving them in total dismay.

Both traders questioned why the government did not consider them during the drafting of the budget, to hear their concerns and also their contributions.

They believe that if this was done, things would have been better for them because times are hard.

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Naa Sakwaba Akwa | [email protected]