Minister of Finance Ken Ofori-Atta is expected in Parliament on July 17 present the 2019 mid-year review and supplementary budget.
The Minister is enjoined by the Public Financial Management Act to present a mid-year review to Parliament six months after the presentation of the main budget for the fiscal year.
The Minister in a press briefing last week had hinted that the review is to announce new tax measures such as a review of the controversial tax on luxury vehicles announced last year.
According to him, the government has taken into consideration the feedback from the public and has decided to tinker with the measure.
In all, government’s main headache which has been the poor performance of domestic revenue and the Finance Minister is expected to announce other measures that will seek to reign in more revenue for the execution of the budget.
Also, some macroeconomic targets set last year are likely to be reviewed in the minister’s presentation to parliament.
These were the set targets for the 2019 fiscal year:
• The overall Real GDP growth of 7.6 percent;
• The non-oil Real GDP growth of 6.2 percent;
• End-period inflation of 8.0 percent;
• Fiscal deficit of 4.2 percent of GDP;
• A primary surplus of 1.2 percent of GDP; and
• Gross International Reserves to cover not less than 3.5 months of imports of goods and services.
Business Today.
