I keep wondering why upon the presentation of the budget, Parliament seems to be content with restricting its arguments on the Income side of the budget, focusing on the Sovereign levies other than the Expenditure side. Are we letting Governments spend the money as they please?

Taxation is used not just to raise revenue, but also to redistribute income, the scale of Government expenditure and public spending raises major concerns on controlling them.

After all, we all await the controversies of Parliamentary engagements on this 2022 Annual budget, and how they will lobby on the considerations raised on the new taxes projected, just to be authorized.

It’s rather a time for the Parliament to extend its concerns from taxation to the question of Expenditure control. The control objective of the kind of budget which gives rise to the doctrine that the budget should balance.

As I told a friend who encouraged me to write, personally I don’t have any stand with the 2022 budget especially because of the sustainability of debt, in terms of the Government wanting to trade Government debt with new taxation, although that will stress the people of the country.

It’s pathetic that the nation does not have reserves for the emergency cases that may hit the country, per their report from the previous year they should be more proactive.

I think more focus should be on the Expenditure control, and allocations of these resources that would be mobilized and that may solve the arguments on the imposition of an unwanted tax burden on the Ghanaian.

If you think about us, act like us…

By: Sandra Obeng