As part of austerity measures taken by government to address the challenges of Ghanaians, President John Mahama, his Vice, Kwesi Amissah-Arthur and all government appointees would have a 10 per cent salary cut for the year 2014, the Minister of Finance, Seth Terkper has said.
Presenting the government�s 2014 Budget Statement and Economic Policy under the theme, �Rising to the Challenge: Re-aligning the Budget to meet Key National Priorities,� yesterday, Mr. Terpker stated that �broad policy initiatives in this budget have been designed to enable us consolidate our middle income status and deal with the new challenges of financing our development.�
The new austere government policy means that the president, his vice and ministers are sacrificing a whopping over GH700,000.00 (over 7 billion old cedis) from their hard-earned salaries for development projects to better the lives of Ghanaians.
Currently, the president takes an estimated GH12,000.00, while his vice takes GH10,500.00 a month. The 10 percent salary cut for the year means, the president and his vice will losevGH 14,400.00 and 12,600.00 respectively; the total being GH27,000.00.
With an estimated 80 ministers taking home an estimated amount of GH8,000.00 a month, the ministers will also be losing some GH9,600.00 each a year; the total being about GH768,000.00 that will be channeled into a special account for development projects.
Mr. Terkper added that the strategy for accelerated economic growth is putting people first, building a strong and resilient economy, expanding infrastructure and ensuring transparent and accountable governance.
�This will be achieved through increased investments in infrastructure, agriculture modernization, manufacturing based on agro-industrialization, Science, Technology and Innovation and targeted Exploitation of Ghana�s natural resources, particularly, minerals, oil and gas,� he added.
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