The Minority in Parliament has raised concerns over what it describes as the unprecedented levels of borrowing under the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government.
The Minority in a statement said the reckless borrowing under the NPP government is a betrayal of the trust reposed in President Nana Akufo-Addo and his Vice, Mahamudu Bawumia.
“The Minority Caucus is deeply concerned about the reckless borrowing of the NPP government. The extent of borrowing marks a betrayal of the trust reposed in the President after he and his then Vice Presidential candidate promised in opposition not to borrow because according to them, we had all the resources needed to finance our development.
“Not only has the President’s insatiable appetite for borrowing exposed that promise as hollow, it also shows that he and his team do not posses the competence they claimed to have to generate domestic revenue to finance the national budget.”
Ranking Member on the Finance Committee, Cassiel Ato indicated that government is mortgaging the future of the country by borrowing recklessly.
He made these comments while addressing the press today [Thursday] where he indicated that the government’s total revenue is not enough to settle its debts.
“If we are to pay for debt and pay for wages and salaries because they are all statutory, you need more than your total revenue to be able to service that so I am surprised that the Finance Minister is saying that it is not a problem because you can pay for it. You cannot pay for it because the total revenue is not enough to pay your wages and salaries and service your debt.
“Infact the situation is even worse if you take the statutory payment out because remember that the total revenue includes what we have for GETFund, National Health Insurance and District Assembly Common Fund. If you are to take that out, you have about 130 percent so the situation is bad…Please let us not allow them to use debt to GDP to convince us.”
The Central Bank recently reported that the county’s debt stock had hit 198 million Ghana cedis.
The debt accumulation in 2019 includes proceeds from the US$3 billion Eurobond the government had issued in March.
The growing public debt feeds into the rising interest payments the government pays on its borrowings.
