Mr Raymond Tandoh, Financial and Management Consultant
Mr Raymond Tandoh, a financial and management consultant has described Thursday’s midyear review budget by the Finance Minister as a ‘hopeless one’.
According to him, the budget as read by the Finance Minister only sought to hide behind COVI-19 to throw up cooked figures for unnecessary expenditure.
Speaking to the Ghanaian Observer Newspaper in Kumasi, Mr Tandoh revealed that in November last year the government in a similar fashion created a hyped budget but ended up creating a cosmetic 4.5 deficit.
The Financial consultant wondered where the government would be generating the 100 billion revenue target it has set to finance projects it has earmarked.
‘’This midyear budget presents the Ghanaian with no hope since it only seeks to play up numbers for profligate expenditure in this election period’’, Mr Tandoh posited.
COMMUNICATION TAX REDUCTION:
Mr Tandoh hesitantly commended government on the 4% reduction of the communication service tax (CST) which stood at 9% but said the government was doing a ‘’see-saw’ with the tax.
He noted that the upward review of CST last year was needless and that the Ghanaian was only being burdened without a just cause.
The management consultant however called on government to ensure that the reduction in CST reflects in reality so that Ghanaians could enjoy the relief to its fullest.
‘’I pray Ghanaians are made to enjoy the relief from CST soon so that they can benefit from something that is theirs’’, the Financial consultant urged.
STIMULUS:
The financial consultant noted that the 600million cedis stimulus package announced by the government in the wake of COVID-19 was piecemeal.
He wondered how an amount as low as ghc 2, 000.00 could put people who had lost their livelihoods back to business.
Those who queued for these paltry sums ended up being disappointed having struggled to secure Tax Identification Numbers (TIN), Mr Tandoh noted.
‘’It was worrying to see business owners struggle to procure TIN numbers just to secure monies as low as GHC2,000.00 which the government described as stimulus package’’, Mr Tandoh slammed.
ADVICE:
Proffering advice to the NPP government, Mr Tandoh said expenditure from henceforth should be controlled with some high sense of responsibility.
He noted that the country could not continue to be borrowing to service wasteful expenditures government undertakes.
Mr Tandoh also asked government to provide proper details of the liquidated banks whose customers are being paid with excess of 21 billion cedis.
‘’Government must be controlled in the kind of expenditures they engage in so that they do not saddle the country with avoidable debts’’, the finance person advised.
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