Mr John Boadu, the General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) said Ghana is currently confronted with challenges of economic recovery due to the Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
He said expected government revenue dipped by over GHC11 billion, whilst expenditure went up by over GHC16 billion, which he added, had created major stress on public finances.
“COVID-19 has decimated not only government finances, but private capital and savings as well. But faced with a weak tax base, traditional solutions of increasing petroleum levies and seeking loans fall far far short of the people’s needs”, he said.
Addressing a news conference in Sunyani, Mr Boadu urged the government to remain steadfast in its desire to resolve the difficulty of public finance through the e-levy, and called on Ghanaians to “rise above the fray” and support the government to deliver on its mandate.
“The NPP has a big picture view of where we are going as a country and we need everybody on board to reach the dream of a prosperous Ghana. Success of the e-levy will require a massive mobilization of consensus”, he stated.
“Unfortunately, our political opponents can be quite unscrupulous when it comes to developing big ideas and supporting the implementation of those ideas for the public good.
“The mind-set of the NDC is to paint a picture of gloom and doom, blame the NPP for all the ills of Ghana and demand the vote of the people without any clear or viable policy proposal”, The General Secretary indicated.
Mr Boadu assured “the innovative approaches to revenue generation adopted by the 2022 Agyenkwa budget can only lead to revolutionary results for Ghana when accepted and implemented effectively”.
He lamented the NPP government inherited from the previous NDC administration challenges of declining Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth, rising unemployment, restricted public sector spending, debt overhang, “Dumsor” and a financial sector near collapse in 2016.
That notwithstanding, Mr Boadu said NPP government managed to stabilise the system and implemented its flagship programmes of free Senior High School, One-District-One-Factory (1D1F), Planting for Food and Jobs (PfFJs) and a major revamp of the cocoa sector.
“As we are aware, growth was averaging nearly seven per cent till the year 2020 when COVID-19 struck the world. Thus the government is compelled to be innovative and that innovation is the e-levy”, he explained.
