Highlights of budget expectations of various groups
Finance Minister meets Economic team on
2002 budget
Accra (Greater Accra) 19 February 2002 - Yaw Osafo Maafo, Minister of Finance, is meeting with members of the National Economic Management Team to fine-tune the final draft of the 2002 budget, to be presented to Parliament on Thursday.
The meeting, which started on Monday morning under the chairmanship of Joseph
Henry Mensah, Senior Minister, is a follow up to a similar one held at Ho over the weekend.
A reliable source at the Finance Ministry told the Ghana News Agency that the 2002 budget would seek to consolidate the microeconomic and fiscal gains made during the first year and provide stricter ways of ensuring that the economy enjoyed real growth.
"We hope to bring out measures that will ensure that we lift the economy higher than we came to meet it," the source said, adding; "first, we moved to stabilise the economy, now we will introduce policies to move the economy to a higher gear of growth."
The source mentioned transport, agriculture, infrastructure development, education and health and communication technology as key areas for attention this year. "This does not mean that other areas would not receive attention, but that the distribution of funds will be spread more evenly at certain portions."
On funding of health, the source said greater attention and funds would be given "to fighting the HIV/AIDS menace, which is fast killing a large chunk of our population."
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Accra (Greater Accra) 19 February 2002 - The GSE All-Share Index slipped on account of five-cedis loss by Home Finance Company on Monday. A one cedi gain by Standard Chartered Bank (SCB), the highest prices equity, could not stop the index from sliding by 0.14 points at the end of trading.
The index, the main market indicator, ended at 964.52 points from Friday's close of 964.66 points. HFC lost five cedis at 945 cedis and SCB gained one cedi at 20,552 cedis, change for the year also slipped at 0.90 per cent from 0.91 per cent.
Market capitalisation also closed lower at 3,920.64 billion cedis from 3,920.91 billion cedis. The following are the closing prices of the equities in cedis:
ABL 320
AGC 18,800
ALW 4,300
BAT 627
CFAO 60
EIC 3,117
FML 950
GBL 1,000
GCB 1,580
GGL 910
HFC 945 -5
MGL 241
MLC 146
MOGL 18,502
PAF 750
PBC 450
PZ 1,051
SCB 20,552 +1
SPPC 342
SSB 2,200
UNIL 2,500
CMLT 430
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Accra (Greater Accra) 19 February 2002
Currency Buying Selling
US Dollar 7,273.73 7,492.64
Pound Sterling 10,421.07 10,738.45
Swiss Franc 4,287.10 4,413.49
Canadian Dollar 4,574.46 4,709.23
Japanese Yen 54.84 56.47
S/African Rand 641.91 659.29
Euro 6,356.25 6,545.84
CFA Franc 9.69 9.98
Naira 64.94 66.89
Ecowas/WAUA 9,285.84 ----------
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Accra (Greater Accra) 19 February 2002 - The following are highlights of the expectations of this year's budget:
The Association of Ghana Industries (AGI):
* Reduction or elimination of some of the taxes (Corporate income tax, ECOWAS Levy, EDIF Levy, NRL Levy, Inspection Fee and Processing fee to make local industries competitive.)
* Impose special tax on importation of cheap steel products in order to help grow local steel mills. (Ghana currently has the lowest import duty -1 0.0 per cent - on iron rods.)
* Reduce the 140 per cent excise duty on locally manufactured cigarettes.
* Zero rating for agricultural and pharmaceutical products.
* Review Tax Law Regulations LI 1675 which defines withholding tax rates for companies.
Financial analysts and business operators expect the government to:
* Sustain micro-economic discipline.
*Provide adequate funding for agriculture and ensure that private sector activities
are enhanced to meet the growing aspirations of Ghanaians.
*Increase funding for agriculture, education and infrastructure development
*Use budget to provide a clear set of economic stimuli and further tax incentives for
businesses to ensure available long-term funds for planning.
* Maintain VAT at 12.5 per cent
* Increase support for small-scale businesses through NBSSI and affiliate institutions
Databank Financial Services expects that:
* 2002 budget should sustain microeconomic discipline.
* Growth of economy should be the main focus.
* Increase revenue generation to help balance government spending.
* Stick to strict fiscal discipline.
* Address debt overhang for Ghanaian companies.
* Transparent divestitures.
* Intensify efforts to reduce inflation to below the current 23.5 per cent.
* Increase budget allocation for education and agriculture.
The World Bank Office in Accra expects the government to:
* Maintain microeconomic discipline.
* Government should spend what it has.
* Increase revenue collection base.
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