Seth Terkper: Former finance minister slams government’s report on Ghana’s fiscal debt

- Seth Terkper, the former finance minister, has cast doubts over details of Ghana's fiscal debts presented by the finance minister, Ken Ofori-Atta

- He explained that he is convinced the current deficit figure is 13.6% and not 11.4% as announced by Ofori-Atta

- According to him, two important components of the debts were excluded by the minister

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The former Minister of Finance, Seth Terkper, has argued that the government failed to present the right details with respect to Ghana’s fiscal debt.

According to him, Ghana’s debt is a deficit figure of 13.6% and not 11.4% as indicated.

He added that it is also wrong for the government to describe expenditure related to the outbreak of the coronavirus as the prime reason for the widening of the fiscal debt.

READ ALSO: Seth Terkper calls for audit of Free SHS funds

In his opinion, funds used to resolve debts of financial institutions and the energy sector, which were excluded from the 2020 budget, are the main reasons.

A bftonline.com report shows that Terkper’s comments follow the presentation of the mid-year budget by the Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta.

YEN.com.gh understands that Ofori-Atta said Ghana’s deficit figure increased to 11.4% from 4.7% following the outbreak of the coronavirus.

This, he noted, has compelled his office to request an extra GHc11.8 billion to close the deficit gap.

Terkper, however, argued that the government is simply interested in taking advantage of the pandemic-induced spending to hide the true picture of the economy.

He further noted that the government is deliberately manipulating information in order to present an impression of a well-performing economy to Ghanaians.

In another report on Seth Terkper, he has argued that Ghana’s public debt cannot be 59.3% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as announced by the Bank of Ghana.

He explained that it can only be so if the government is intent on continuing with the controversial “parallel fiscal reporting" that it denies.

Terkper indicated that both the 2019 Debt Report and the International Monetary Fund show the end-2019 debt level as 63%.

READ ALSO: Seth Terkper punches holes in Bank of Ghana's report on public debt

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Source: YEN.com.gh