‘2018 Budget Must Tackle Economic Challenges’

The Institute of Chattered Economist of Ghana (ICEG), has called on government to address the economic challenges in its 2018 financial budget.

Pending the budget presentation by the Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta for 2018,the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Institute, Mr. Gideon Amissahentreated government to come up with policies that will ensure economic stability particularly in the revenue sector.

Mr. Amissah made this statement at the 2017 Annual Economists Conference organized by the Institute in Accra on Friday, on the theme, “Pursuit of Accelerated Sustainable Socio-Economic Development: The Ghana we deserve.”

He said “We are looking for policies that will ensure economic stability particularly in the revenue sector. We should not over-estimate what we expect from the revenue sector.

“Now we have revenue short fall due to the huge target we gave ourselves which we can’t exceed. So, going forward we expect a realistic revenue target and expenditure target”.

Infrastructural Projects

He also stated that government should focus on infrastructural projects in the health and educational sectors.

“There has not been any infrastructural project this year and so we expect the 2018 budget to address those challenges. We should look at health infrastructure and education infrastructure” he said.

Touching on tax collection in the country, Mr. Amissah commended government for the introduction of the National Identification System and the Digital Addressing system.

He said this will ensure easy identification of people who do not pay their tax in the country.

Role of Banks in Agriculture Sector

The Chief Executive of the Women’s World Banking, Ms. Charlotte Lily, one of the speakers at the conference, called on financial institutions to invest in the agricultural sector.

She said banks and financial institutions should endeavor to move away from their reluctant to support farmers with the view that the sector is risky.

“Institutions can look at areas like warehousing establishment to reduce post-harvest losses, modern irrigation facilities, and access to credits for farmers”, she stressed.

According to her, helping farmers in the agriculture sector to flourish will mean that about 50 to 60 percent of population is being helped out of poverty.

Induction

Five fellows were inducted into the Institute after taking an oath administered by the president of the Institute, Professor Peter TuffuoAsubonteng.

They were also presented with certificates to acknowledge their success.

Source: thepublisher/Emmanuel Yeboah