Minority: We Aren't Impressed...Na Inflation We Go Chop; Gov't Should Be Realistic

Just hours after the Finance Minister, Hon Seth Terkper, presented the 2013 Budget Statement to Parliament, the Minority says it is "unimpressive, empty and lacks clarity". Seth Terkper, on Tuesday, laid before the House, President John Dramani Mahama's economic working document for the country in the 2013 financial year, cataloguing a litany of interventions to address the current increasing budget deficit; plans to solve the current power crisis; how and why increasing revenue is important. But the Minority�s Spokesperson on Finance, Dr. Anthony Akoto Osei, in an interview with the media, virtually rubbished the document describing it as lacking so many fine details. "There was not much there...in terms of the roads he was mentioning, go and look in the 2012 budget they are already in there...the economy is bad shape...inflation is at 8% and your treasury bill rate is at 23 percent why? Because last year alone the government borrowed 7 billion from domestic markets which means that the private sector is being crowded up�. �In Economics, you don�t play games because it will catch up with you. In the budget of 2012, instead of saying the wage bill will be 7.5, they said 5.6. Couldn�t anyone in government tell us it was going to go that far? If you go and put there that non tax revenue will be GHc2.2m when you know you cannot get it, who are you fooling?� "Don�t over estimate; it will come back to haunt you� Inflation is single digit so what? Like the Nigerian Finance Minister said �Na inflation we go chop?' They should be realistic! [That is when] we can all sit down and find out what is going on because so far from what I have heard, I�m not impressed,� Dr. Akoto Osei said.