By: Franklin ASARE-DONKOH
The Vice President of Ghana and the 2024 New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, says his proposed economic reforms to transform the country’s current economic crisis will align with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme his government has signed into.
The 2024 NPP presidential candidate reaffirmed that his economic agenda is carefully crafted to align with the IMF programme currently guiding Ghana’s financial stabilization efforts.
His assurance coming on the heels of many concerns raised by some economic analysts about how certain policies, such as the proposed scrapping of the e-levy, introduction of a tax amnesty, and the implementation of a flat tax regime, could impact the country’s revenue streams and disrupt the IMF-backed stabilization measures.
Addressing some selected journalists at a media engagement yesterday, Sunday, August 25, 2024, Dr. Bawumia responded to these concerns by emphasising his administration’s commitment to economic growth coupled with fiscal discipline.
The vice president who has been the head of the country’s economic management team since 2016 and under whose watch Ghana’s economy has seen sharp economic declines, said when voted for as the president, his policy framework would support the objectives of the IMF programme while also addressing the nation’s economic challenges.
“I don’t see any inconsistency at all between what I am proposing and the Fund programme that we are engaged in.
If you read my proposals very carefully, I start by saying we are going to bring down government expenditure by 3% of GDP.
The proposals in terms of the tax cuts I am proposing will not even come up to 0.5% of GDP.
So you have more than enough space to fund what I am talking about.
I think the issue at the end of the day for the programme is to make sure we maintain fiscal sustainability,” the Vice President said.
Dr. Bawumia further stated that in addition to this, he is proposing an amendment to the country’s Fiscal Responsibility Act to first make the Fiscal Responsibility Council independent akin to the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of Ghana that will have oversight of fiscal responsibility and “a tighter fiscal rule where expenditure will not exceed 105% of the previous year’s tax revenue”.
