Accra, March 17, Ghanadot/GNA – Parliament on Tuesday, through a
voice vote, approved the financial policy of government for the
year ending December 31, 2009.
Dr Kwabena Duffuor, Finance Minister, in winding up on the
debate on the budget, said the challenge facing the country was
how to use and manage all the resources available for
development.
He said emphasis would be placed on efficiency to ensure that
the right things were done to bring back the economy on track.
Earlier, during the debate, Mr. Hackman Owusu-Agyemang, NPP
Member of Parliament (MP) for New Juaben North, called on
government to reconcile the monetary and fiscal policies to
ensure a right climate for investment, job creation and create
confidence in the economy.
He said with the high prime rate and base rates as high 29 to 31
percent, the private sector could not thrive in such an
environment.
The MP said in times of economic distress, it was not proper to
raise the prime rate since this made the cost of doing business
very expensive.
He said it was unlikely that the private sector would like to
invest and create jobs because of the high cost of borrowing,
high production cost, high inflation and the falling local
currency.
Mr Owusu-Agyemang said it was important for the private sector
to be brought on board in the workings of the Central Bank to
help in the proper formulation of some aspects of the monetary
policies of the Bank of Ghana.
Mr Edem Asimah, NDC MP for South Dayi, touched on the social
aspects of the budget and said in the past eight years, the NPP
administration had failed in the delivery of water to the
people, citing the daily search for water by people carrying
yellow plastic containers in some parts of the Accra metropolis.
He lauded the NDC government for capturing the interest of the
rural folk in the 2009 budget by the intention to improve access
to safe water through the abolition of the five per cent
contributions by communities.
Mr Asimah also said sanitation had also not improved under the
previous administration.
Dr Matthew Prempeh, NPP MP for Manhyia, said the NDC government
had failed on some of its campaign promises by not meeting the
40 percent women representation in public life and allowances to
teachers.
Mr Yaw Effah-Baafi, NDC MP for Kintampo South, touched on the
agriculture sector and said local rice production must be
improved to discourage the huge investments on rice importation.
He said the decision to improve upon old irrigations projects
and set up new ones were in the right direction since
agriculture was posed to lead the nation into prosperity.
GNA
