TOWARDS A PEOPLE-CENTRED BUDGET (NOV 11, 2009)

THE Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr Kwabena Duffuor, will, a week from today, present before Parliament the financial statement of the government or budget for the 2010 financial year.
It is expected to outline not only the achievements, shortcomings and challenges of the 2009 budget but also important areas of government revenue and expenditure.
It will also deal with the measures the government will put in place to revamp the economy and place it on a sound footing to enable it to support a better life for the people, in line with President John Evans Atta Mills’s quest to build a better Ghana for all.
It is an established fact that the 2009 budget, coming as it did from a background of huge and unprecedented government deficit, balance of payment difficulties, substantial government debts, falling value of the cedi and rising inflation and cost of living, had to preoccupy itself with containing and reversing those negative macroeconomic indicators before securing any meaningful and sustainable growth.
Fortunately, and by dint of hard work, prudent and financial discipline exercised by the government, backed by good management of the economy, inflation has not only stabilised but is also on the decline. The exchange rate has also been stabilised and, indeed, in recent times shown some levels of appreciation.
Financial discipline, government’s prudence and less than flamboyant public spending have, according to financial experts, contributed to significantly bring down the huge public debt inherited from the previous government.
Gross Domestic Product (GDR) growth, which is said to be closer to five per cent, is commendable. In many African states, the projected growth for 2009 is not beyond two per cent, in real terms.
From this background, we believe that the budget Dr Duffuor is about to present will be oriented towards consolidating these gains, go for growth and institute policy measures that will create more jobs and improve the material conditions of the people, especially the poor and vulnerable sections of society.
The news in the grapevine that this new budget will see the implementation of the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS) will, if it materialises, be good news for the working people of this country who, for years, have fought hard for a wage and salary regime that will guarantee them better and dignified lives.
Increases in budgetary allocations for the Capitation Grant, the School Feeding Programme, the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty programme and, the provision of free school uniforms for more than one million pupils should represent evidence of the government’s commitment to the pursuit of more pro-poor policies and programmes to ameliorate the plight of the poor, marginalised and underprivileged.
These notwithstanding, we believe more work still needs to be done to bring down interest rates, which are still high and crowd out the private sector which, as the engine of growth of the economy, is expected to spearhead the creation of jobs for the multitude of unemployed.
More should also be done to increase the productive and export base of the economy, especially the manufacturing sector, and reduce imports through the setting up of import substituting industries to reduce massive outflows of scarce foreign exchange.
We also wish to use this opportunity to remind the government of its pledge to cut down substantially on the imports of rice and poultry products by supporting local farmers to increase production.