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New budget to be presented in July - Ken Ofori Atta hints 

By Justice Kofi Bimpeh
Ken Ofori Atta & Dr Bawumia
Ken Ofori Atta & Dr Bawumia
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Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta has hinted that government may present a new budget to parliament by July due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

The 2020 financial budget was targeted at building the infrastructure needs of the country with special focus on roads.

Finance Minister in Parliament yesterday said the government has raised an additional 9.5 billion cedis to fight the Covid-19, the situation which may move the 2020 budget deficit to over 7%.

In a media interview, the Finance Minister said due to the pandemic there is the need to reassess government expenditure and realign events to meet revenue targets.

READ ALSO : Why the need to fall on Heritage Fund in Covid-19 fight 

" So in the Financial Times, there was an article in which I had proposed a number of measures at the internal scale so fortunately, we are beginning to build consensus globally as to how to manage this. We just have to relook at the fundamental assumptions of the budget and I did signal to parliament that come July we should come with maybe a lot more information and analysis. ......what is the new normal and how do we address the pain that will occur............."

"From the first budget, we talked about the preferential option for the poor, remove these taxes let people do what they want and now we are just coming to the bottom of Maslow's theory, now keeping body and soul together at the same making sure infrastructure are in place," he added.

Covid-19 will cost Ghana GHS9.5 billion - Finance Minister

Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has revealed that the coronavirus pandemic will cost Ghana as much as GHS9,505 billion.
This will be 2.5 percent of Ghana’s revised GDP.

The Minister who briefed Parliament today on the state of the country's finances in these trying times said “Speaker, the total estimated fiscal impact from the shortfall in petroleum receipts, shortfall import duties, the shortfall in other tax revenues, the cost of the preparedness plan, and the cost of Coronavirus Alleviation Programme is GHS9,505 billion,”

Ultimately, there will be a “fiscal gap of GHS11.4 billion,” the Minister added.

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