2006 budget to raise 37 trillion cedis

Accra, Aug 23, GNA - Government says it would seek to raise 37 trillion cedis in next years' budget that will focus on creating jobs and investing in jobs.

Deputy Minister of Finance in charge of Budget, Dr Anthony Osei, told the Ghana News Agency that 29 trillion cedis would come from revenue on the domestic side while the rest would come from Ghana's multi and bilateral partners.

Last year's revenue was expected to raise 24 trillion cedis domestically.

Dr Osei said this at the first in the series of Meet-The-Press organised by the Ministry of Information. It is the first, exactly two weeks after a similar one, which featured President John Agyekum Kufuor. On the continued over reliance on foreign direct investment to support the nation's budget, Dr Osei said the government has over the last couple of years been reducing its total dependence on foreign direct investment.

Donor support to the national budget this year has been slow with only a third of expected inflows coming in as at June. Presently only 81.75 million dollars out of a total of 285.33 million dollars promised by development partners has been received under the Multi Donor Budget Support (MDBS) Initiative.

Mr Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, was upbeat about the nation's ability to increase its food production base and said the 2006 budget to be presented in November would work to build huge food reserve capacity.

He explained that the new per capita income computation by the Ghana Statistical Service has revealed that 52 items constituted items in the food basket and that "if food cost and production are taken care of, then we are better off and can reduce our costs."

The GSS is also working on providing employment figures, indicating the number of persons in employment, unemployed and those out of employment.