Government has disclosed that it has started recording a significant contraction in the budget deficit following implementation of major economic reforms this year.
Ghana is faced with a huge budget deficit of about 12% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
Government therefore embarked on major reforms like the introduction of new taxes and cuts in expenditure.
Deputy Finance Minister, Kwaku Ricketts-Hagan told Citi Business News there has been an enormous improvement through the reforms.
“We have initiated a number of measures on the revenue side. We’ve had a lot of reforms including tax increases which we took to parliament. Those have been signed into law and the taxes are being collected,” he said.
He added “at the beginning of the year, we were not getting as much taxes in as we would have anticipated because people normally don’t pay their taxes early at the beginning of the year. Now the tax revenues are coming in, which means that we are able to plough in a little more than some months ago to be able to finance the expenditure.”
Mr. Ricketts-Hagan reiterated government’s commitment to cutting down expenditure to reduce the deficit.
“On the expenditure side we are trying to trim the expenditure because we are spending so much. One of the biggest things is to do with the single spine. With all these initiatives being taken by the government, we are addressing the deficit issue comprehensively and aggressively.”
He also expressed optimism at reaching the target of 9% by the end of the year and 6% in 3 years.
Source: Citifmonline.com
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