The Member of Parliament (MP) of Sekyere Afram Plains, Hon Adomako Mensah has described the 2018 budget statement for the republic of Ghana as a recycled document.

Mr Adomako Mensah, a member of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) made this assertion on Kumas- based Sika Fm this Thursday.

The MP claimed that, there was nothing new in the 2018 budget presented to the parliament on Wednesday by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Attah.

He maintained that, everything in the budget is a recycled product of the 2017 budget presented earlier this year.

“Mr Ken Ofori Attah repeated exactly what was presented for 2017”.

He observed that, the NPP could not achieve what it presented in the 2017 budget hence repeating all it said earlier.

“We haven’t seen any one district one factory, one village one dam, in any part of the country. The $ 1 million for every constituency has still not been disbursed in the country as the 2017 budget stated”.

Last Wednesday the authority of the president of the Republic of Ghana and in accordance with Article 179 of the 1992 constitution, the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Attah, presented the budget for the year 2018 to Parliament.

The ruling NPP led by Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo-Addo christened it the ‘Asempa Budget’.

In the budget, the government sought to create jobs for the youths. According the minister, about 100, 000 new job opportunities would be available to cater for about 40% of unemployed graduates in Ghana.

The government is as well seeking to increase number of persons who pay taxes by finding ways of widening the nation’s tax net.

It also sought to create a special fund for youth entrepreneurs, reducing expenditure and increasing production in Ghana.

The budget as well announced a decrease in electricity tariffs for both industrial and residential users up to 13%.

However, Hon Adomako Menash has criticized the budget saying it was the same document presented in 2017.

On the contrary, the finance minister during his presentation noted that, the 2018 budget is an abridged version of the 2017 one.

“This presentation is a bridged version of the 2017 budget and I would like to request the Hansard Department to capture the entire budget statement and economic policy”. Mr Ken Ofori Atteh noted.

Many other opposition NDC members have criticized the document in similar fashion.

source:mynewsgh.com