Former Minister of Finance, Mohammed Amin Adam, has criticized the Mahama government’s economic policies, describing the current account balance surplus as “not an appropriate economy.”
Speaking at a press conference after the Finance Minister, Ato Forson, presented the budget statement, Adam questioned the accuracy of the fiscal data presented.
“These are cooked figures,” Adam said. “They have manipulated the data, and we know how they did it. They created a new line called unreleased links, amounting to GHC49 billion. That’s what they’ve put in the fiscal data to manipulate it.”
Mohammed Adam also disputed the government’s claim of a fiscal deficit, stating that the previous administration had left a surplus primary balance.
“When we interrogate the data, every Ghanaian will know that we left a primary balance of a surplus of 0.7% on a commitment basis,” he said.
The former Finance Minister, further criticized the government’s handling of the IMF program, accusing the Finance Minister of prematurely announcing a breach of the program.
“IMF is conducting a review in April, but the minister is already giving a judgment that we have breached the IMF program. This has never happened in the history of this country,” Adam said.
Mohammed Adam also expressed skepticism about the government’s $10 billion “big push” initiative, noting that only $800 million had been allocated for the project.
“Assuming they even average $1 billion per year, they will not even be reaching $5 billion by the end of their term. So, the jobs they are promising Ghanaians are second-world jobs. The jobs will not come,” he said.
He also criticized the government’s failure to address cost-of-living issues, such as transport rates, petroleum product prices, and energy bills.
“Their budget did not address how they are going to ensure that these prices will not increase. And once these prices continue to increase, transport rates will continue to increase,” Adam said.
Additionally, Adam expressed disappointment with the government’s tax policies, particularly the reintroduction of VAT on non-life insurance.
“We were already not collecting VAT on motor insurance. VAT on motor insurance was exempted. Rather, the minister was trying to be smart. They have reintroduced VAT on non-life insurance, except motor vehicle insurance,” he said.
However, he noted that the Minority will tomorrow, Tuesday address a press conference to expose the “Empty Budget” of the National Democratic Congress government.
-BY Daniel Bampoe
