Web Master
The Minority in Parliament says the government is taking the country back to the status of a Highly Indebted Poor Country status as it accumulates more debt than the economy can sustain.
According to the Minority Spokesperson on Finance, Casiel Ato Forson, the government has accumulated 28 billion cedis debt since 2017 in addition to the already existing 120 billion cedis.
The house has today been debating the 2017 Public Debt Management report.
Mr. Ato Forson says the rate of debt accumulation is endangering the economy and Ghanaians will be forced to pay more taxes to clear it.
Even more worrying, he noted was the fact there is nothing to show for the loans the government accrued in the year under review.
“My concern is that they have nothing tangible to show. Debt is increasing yet you cannot say you have built a school block for Ejumako or Denkyira secondary school,” he stated, adding “you invest in debt in a way that can pay for itself but if you are out there to borrow and use it for consumption the multiplier is very little.”
He said the debt situation is getting us into a bad state.
“Ghana is classified as a debt distressed country,” he insisted.
But the Chairman of Parliament’s Finance Committee Dr. Mark Assibey has disputed the figures.
He told Joy News’ Evans Mensah on Top Story, Tuesday the threshold beyond which a country can be described as heavily indebted is when the debt ratio is beyond 70% of GDP.
According to him, the country’s debt profile as at the end of December 2017 was 69% of GDP for which reason the NDC minority cannot be criticizing the government of borrowing beyond its limit.
He argued further that the NPP government inherited a debt to GDP ratio of 73% in 2016 which was way beyond the debt threshold.
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings