2020 Budget: Expectations Of Ghanaians And ‘Reckless Spending’ On Elections

Hbtvghana.com has gathered that as the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, readies to present the budget statement for the 2020 electioneering year tomorrow Wednesday 13th November 2019, there are growing concerns from majority of Ghanaians that it is most likely the government will overspend.

There is a strong feeling of panic out there that the 2020 Budget may turnout be another ‘Sikadie’ (reckless spending) budget statement since politicians will do anything in an election year.

This is because there is usually an attempt to mainly abuse incumbency by influencing the electoral populace to advance political fortunes as part of all efforts to outwit the main opposition.

This is against the backdrop of what has often happened in the past particularly in electioneering years, where politicians, particularly the ruling government flex financial muscles across the country.

The 2020 Budget to be presented by the finance minister is likely to be a bit different from the ordinary years because Ghanaians are voting next year.

It is not surprising to see the International Monetary Fund (IMF) advising the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) government to craft and execute its 2020 budget carefully to avoid overspending that can reverse the gains of stabilisation and draw the economy of Ghana backward.

Expectations Of Ghanaians

According to a section of Ghanaians engaged by Hbtvghana.com, some key areas they are expecting the government to tackle are the issues of over-taxation, fixing the era of poor roads, fuel and transport issues, reliable power supply, water, the economy, education amongst a host of pertinent matters.

“We are going into an election year and unlike ordinary years’ budgets, the 2020 budget should never give room for financial indiscipline.

“We don’t expect the announcement of any new taxes because we are already overburdened with taxes. The finance minister should even try and review the already existing taxes,” Michael Kusi, a resident of Santa Maria, a businessman told Hbtvghana.com.

“When you travel around Ghana you realize one thing that is the bane of our development, which is the bad state of our major roads. Farmers rely on these roads to transport their farm produce to the commercial towns. We continue to pay taxes yet these bad roads have been staring at us in our faces. As a businessman and trader, I can boldly say that it is only in Ghana our leaders take the welfare of the citizens for granted,” Mr. Kwasi Amankwaah, a resident of Adabraka in Accra stated.

“I am a Tomato seller and I do Cold Store Business as well. We want Ken Ofori Atta to know that the 2020 budget should give us some new hope from what we are experiencing currently. We need reliable supply of water, we need reliable supply of power to do our business, he should also do something about petroleum taxes which is also affecting transportation. We also need good roads to transport our goods,” Mama Stella Abio said.