Debates of 9 Mar 2005

MR. SPEAKER
PRAYERS 10:05 a.m.

VOTES AND PROCEEDINGS AND THE OFFICIAL REPORT 10:05 a.m.

Mr. Speaker 10:05 a.m.
Hon. Members, we do not have the Official Report. We move on to the third item.
URGENT QUESTION 10:05 a.m.

Mr. Adjaho 10:05 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I would want to find out from the hon. Attorney- General and Minister for Justice whether those three suspects identified are military personnel, police personnel or civilians.
Mr. Otoo 10:05 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, the three suspects identified are military personnel.
Mr. Adjaho 10:05 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I just want to find out from the hon. Attorney-General and Minister for Justice whether the docket contains some of these pictures -- [The hon. Member tried to show pictures] I can put them on the Table for him to look at, because after examining the docket I just want to find out from him whether the docket contained some of these pictures to show the extent of brutalization.
Mr. A. O. Aidooh 10:05 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I
agree that this Question and the pictures being shown to us are both prejudicial to this matter; the matter is almost before court; it is pending. Mr. Speaker, when we say a matter is pending, it means it is about to go to court or it is in fact before court; and I want to say that these documents will be highly prejudicial and must not be accepted.
Mr. Adjaho 10:05 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I am a little
bit surprised at the kind of position being taken by the hon. Deputy Majority Leader. The only area where the issue of prejudice comes in is when the matter is before court. The matter is not before court so I do not know the basis of the prejudice that he is taking against my Question.
This is the hon. Attorney-General and Minister for Justice appearing before this honourable House. He said that he has seen the docket; he has studied the docket; he has looked through it. I just want to find out whether the docket contains the picture -- If it does not contain it, he will say, “No, it does not contain it”; and that ends the matter. It is as simple as that. If it does not contain it, it does not.
Mr. A. O. Aidooh 10:15 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, the point I am making -- and I am sure he appreciates it -- is that when there is a high probability of a matter being prosecuted, the rule against pendancy applies. Now, these documents are being shown to us as a matter of evidence. So for the purpose of the docket being prepared, Mr. Speaker, these pictures are irrelevant; they are highly irrelevant.
I want to re-emphasize the point that when there is a high probability of a matter being prosecuted, Mr. Speaker, the rule against pendancy applies. It is not just because the subject matter is not before court; when there is a high probability -- He knows that -- that the matter would be prosecuted, the rule against pendancy applies.
Secondly, Mr. Speaker, these documents
are a matter of evidence that will come before the court; they may or may not be used. So whether they are on the docket or not is highly irrelevant at this point.
Mr. Speaker 10:15 a.m.
Hon. Deputy Minority Leader, would you be satisfied if you gave these documents to him, just without asking questions?
Mr. Adjaho 10:15 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I am surprised. Recently, the hon. Majority Leader issued a press statement in which they talked about relying on the Standing Orders, Standing Orders being breached and all those things. Now here comes an hon. Member of this House, the hon. Deputy Majority Leader and hon. Member for Tema West, and he cannot quote a single Order to support the point that he is making; and he wants to shut the door to this side of the House.
Mr. Speaker, this is a docket that the hon. Attorney-General and Minister for Justice said that he has looked through; he has read everything from cover to cover. And I am asking him whether these pictures are in the docket. If they are not in the docket he should just say that they are not there, and the matter ends there. And I will be satisfied with the yes or no answer.
Mr. Speaker 10:15 a.m.
Hon. Deputy Minority Leader, I asked you a question, that would you be satisfied if you left these documents with him without asking a question?
Mr. Adjaho 10:15 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, this is the only document I have -- [Laughter.] They are the only pictures of the deceased that I have got and if I left them to him and they are misplaced, I will not get another copy. So Mr. Speaker, on a more serious note, we have two options in asking Questions -- the written and the oral. I chose the oral and Mr. Speaker was grateful enough to admit an Oral Question. And this is an Oral Question so we are interested; the people of this country are interested.
And Mr. Speaker, it will be in your interest to know that this is the Report of the United States of America State Department -- Annual Report on Human Rights. And this matter has been well captured in the Annual Report on Human Rights to the United States Congress. If the United States Congress is even seized with the matter, what prevents us in Ghana's Parliament from looking at
Mr. Speaker 10:15 a.m.
Hon. Member, I have asked you a simple question. Would you be satisfied if he gets photocopies?
Mr. Adjaho 10:15 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, with the greatest respect, I will not be satisfied.
Mr. Speaker 10:15 a.m.
All right.
Mr. E. A. Owusu-Ansah 10:15 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, the hon. Member for Avenor/Ave would realize that when the hon. Attorney- General and Minister for Justice was giving a status report of the docket, he particularly omitted to give us even the names and the identity of the people who are to be charged. He did that with the greatest of caution; the reason being that at this stage the docket is in preparation so not much details would have to be given, as it were, to influence the investigation which is still ongoing.
So I think the hon. Member, after he has asked his Question and the Question has been duly answered that the docket is in preparation and that necessary instructions are being given, that should end the matter. As to what is going into the matter, he should wait, when the matter is before court he will see it.
Mr. Speaker 10:15 a.m.
Hon. Attorney-General, this is a Question which has just been asked.
Mr. Otoo 10:15 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, the practice is for the police to forward to the Attorney- General's Department a duplicate copy of the statements and whatever they intend to use. I have seen pictures, not the way it has been put here, but because it is a duplicate copy -- These are photocopies
of the pictures and I have them in the docket with me.
Mr. Speaker 10:15 a.m.
Hon. Deputy Minority Leader, do you have another question?
Mr. Adjaho 10:15 a.m.
I am very grateful to the hon. Attorney-General. This is a very simple question and I am happy that even though his side tried to prevent him from answering -- [Interruption.]
Mr. Speaker 10:15 a.m.
You may ask a further question if you have. [Laughter.]
Mr. Adjaho 10:15 a.m.
My last question is to find out from the hon. Attorney-General and to get some assurance for this House as to how soon -- He is giving the assurance that it will be fast-tracked -- How soon does he expect this matter to be put before court?
Mr. Otoo 10:15 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, we are awaiting, as I said, the docket from the police, which should include the charge caution statements of the accused. Immediately they come, as I have already indicated, even whilst awaiting the charge statement, I have directed that the bill of indictment should be started. So I believe that we are in good shape and it should not take too much time; we should be able to start this trial pretty soon.
Mr. E. T. Mensah 10:15 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, the hon. Attorney-General just said that the trial would be started pretty soon. How soon is his “pretty soon”?
Mr. Otoo 10:15 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, as I said, the docket would not be complete without the charge caution statements and the charges actually preferred against the suspects. So we are waiting for the arrival of the police docket from Tamale and immediately it arrives, we will start the process; that I can assure the hon. Member.
Mr. Pele Abuga 10:15 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I would want to find out, if the hon. Attorney- General can tell us, why the caution statement or what has been outstanding has been delayed.
Mr. Otoo 10:15 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, the police would normally prepare the docket and they will forward it to the Attorney- General's Department for advice, as to the appropriate charges to be preferred against the suspects. So what they did was to write for advice and we have advised that they be charged. We have directed that after they are charged, they be given the opportunity to make further statements. The practice is either to make a fresh statement or just to say that “I rely on the statement already given to the police during the investigations”.
Now, without that we cannot complete the process, and we cannot start the bill of indictment. But I am saying that even whilst waiting, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and his people should start preparing the bill of indictment because we have all the statements from the potential persons we intent to use together with some of the exhibits; and it should be fast-tracked, I can assure you.
Mr. Speaker 10:25 a.m.
Hon. Attorney-General, we thank you very much.
rose
Mr. Speaker 10:25 a.m.
Do you have another
question to ask?
Mr. E. T. Mensah 10:25 a.m.
Yes, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, from the United States Information Services (USIS) Human Rights Report, it has been stated that the police as well as the military have set up

a commission to investigate the same brutal killing of Issa Mobila. Does the hon. Attorney-General have any idea about the military investigation?
Mr. Otoo 10:25 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I do not believe that the Attorney-General's Department has anything to do with the military. We have treated this matter as a purely criminal matter; that is why the police investigated and has sent the docket to us for advice. So we do not know what is happening in the military circles. But I can assure you that under the Armed Forces Act, the military tribunals have no right or jurisdiction to deal with murder or manslaughter or rape cases. So if we find that it falls within these areas we would appropriately deal with them and leave the military alone.
Mr. E. T. Mensah 10:25 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, my question is simple. I asked the hon. Attorney-General whether he is aware of any such military investigation into the same matter.
Mr. Otoo 10:25 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I am not aware. I have not been briefed and, as I said, it will have no effect on what we are doing.
Mr. Speaker 10:25 a.m.
Hon. Attorney-General, thank you very much for coming this morning; and you are hereby discharged.
Item 5, that is, the commencement of Public Business.
PAPERS 10:25 a.m.

Mr. Speaker 10:25 a.m.
We will continue with item 8, Motions -- That this honourable House approves the Financial Policy of the Government for the year ending 31st December 2005. We will continue with the debate and conclude it.
MOTIONS 10:25 a.m.

Mr. Speaker 10:25 a.m.
Hon. Member for Komenda/Edina/Eguafo/Abirem?
Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom (CPP -- Komenda/Edina/Eguafo/Abirem) 10:35 a.m.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to make a contribution to the motion moved by the hon. Minister for Finance and Economic Planning for the approval of the Financial Policy of the Government for the year ending 31st December, 2005.
Mr. Speaker, the objectives for 2005 have been pretty well laid out and the Budget Statement read on behalf of His Excellency the President by the Minister for Finance and Economic Planning and
what he had laid out are pretty clear. The growth objectives -- What the different sectors are expected to do in terms of performance are the contributions of the tax agencies and a variety of other items relating to the outlook for the year 2005.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to draw the attention of the hon. Minister for Finance and Economic Planning and of hon. Members of the House to the fact that while all of these objectives are well noted, we need to go back and understand why successes were obtained in the year 2001 to 2004. Because it is based on the understanding of the achievements during those four years that we can also determine what our expectations really should be for 2005 and beyond.
Mr. Speaker, to me the achievements of 2001 and 2005 which underpin what has been presented to the honourable House are really based on a number of areas.
The first one is a clear statement and an understanding of Government's priorities; and we would all recall that Government through the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy identified five priority areas -- the infrastructure of enhanced social services, the modernization of agriculture based on rural development, good governance and private sector development.
What is really important is not that we had these five priorities but that these priorities were directly linked to the Annual Budget all of these past four years and that monies were allocated on the basis of these five priority areas. And not only that, there was a lot of work done during the course of each of these to ensure that monies were indeed disbursed in accordance with the five priority areas. And so it is also quite clear why we see infrastructural development projects throughout the country and why we see

a number of other projects in those five priority areas.

And so if we are going to see good performance in 2005 then we must learn from what happened in the past four years and continue with what also we all need to do there.

We can also look at the increase in domestic tax revenues that also happened in the past four years and the over a hundred per cent disbursement of development partner commitments that also occurred in these past four years. They came as a result of the Government meeting the commitments that it had made to these development partners.

And so if the estimates and what was presented on the floor of the House are going to become real, then the Government machinery must also be tuned to make sure that commitments that we make to ourselves as a nation and to development partners are indeed also made to come true or adhered to.

Mr. Speaker, in the past we have had a

chequered history because of the break in the priorities and also because of the lack of continuation in action. And so I am happy to know that in the 2005 Budget, those five priority areas that we had relied on for the past four years have not just been thrown away but indeed are being considered as the five foundation pillars for the three new priority areas that had been identified to carry us through the year 2005.

As we look at human resource development, private sector development and good governance, I am happy to note that the old priority areas are still there and the work is going to continue. It is our
rose
Mr. Speaker 10:35 a.m.
Hon. Member for Jirapa,
do you have a point of order to raise?
Mr. Salia 10:35 a.m.
Yes, Mr. Speaker. Mr.
Speaker, I think my hon. Colleague is misleading this House by saying that what happened between 1999 and 2000 was what led to our development partners not disbursing commitments. Exactly the same thing happened in the year 2004 and yet we are aware that disbursements for 2004 were excellent as we read in the Budget. So that cannot be the reasons, Mr. Speaker.
Dr. Nduom 10:35 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, if the hon.
Member would wait, I will get to 2004. But what I said about 1999 and 2000 are not disputable. The fact of the matter is that there was the need for petroleum prices to go up during that period and the prices did not go up. What I am saying is that one of the important reasons why disbursements were not made to the then Government is due to that fact. It is one of the important reasons.
Mr. Moses Asaga 10:35 a.m.
On a point of
order. Mr. Speaker, the hon. Minister,
to me, has not given a good justification for why disbursements were not made. Disbursements have never been dependent on whether Government has raised crude oil prices, especially in 1999/2000 when I was in the Government. If he cares to know, because crude oil prices went up and cocoa and gold prices went down as commodities, the Government was able to arrange what we call the ERSO facility which was supposed to be used to support the economy. So for me that is not true.
He can give his reasons but he should not say that disbursements were not made because Government did not increase fuel prices at cost recovery level. That is not correct; it is misleading. Everything he has said is fine, but that particular statement is not correct. And I am reminding him about the ERSO which was about $125 million; he knows the meaning of ERSO -- Economic Recovery Support Operative Programme. So that was there; we negotiated it and that is even where the Speaker's block of 25 million dollars was included in that programme; so it is not correct.
Dr. Nduom 10:45 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I am aware of all of the facts that my hon. Friend, the hon. Member has stated. But there is more to it, and the facts are clear; the facts are available for everybody who wants to check to be able to take a look at, because these days the World Bank records are available freely on the internet and everywhere, if everyone cares to go and search.
Mr. Salia 10:45 a.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, my hon. Colleague is persisting in misleading the House with respect to this particular matter. If there is evidence that he has at his disposal to specifically state that between 1999 and 2000, as a result of the National Democratic Congress (NDC)
Mr. Speaker 10:45 a.m.
Hon. Member, do you have an evidence in support of this contention which is being challenged?
Dr. Nduom 10:45 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, let me restate the point that I was trying to make because I think that the hon. Members are being too quick to find something to speak against -- [Laughter.]
Let me state the point that I was trying to make. The number one point that I was making was that all governments, including Dr. Kwame Nkrumah's Government, have suffered under the weight of what Government has had to do to support the pricing of petroleum products in this country and that that has been a burden of every government and we have all suffered as a result of that. That is the number one point.
The number two point that I was trying to make was that if we go back and take a look at the 1999 and 2000 periods, we would find that the previous Government, that is the NDC Government, also suffered significantly and that was one of the reasons why they suffered from a lack of disbursement -- and a lack of disbursement is clearly there to be found. And Mr. Speaker, I would be happy to come back to the House to provide information to show that the disbursements that were required and expected during that period did not come and therefore we suffered in the significant devaluation of the currency that we all know and experienced over the period; that is the point that I was trying to make.
Mr. Salia 10:45 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, my hon. Colleague has tried valiantly to restate
his point but in exactly the same manner. I do not think he has been successful in doing that.
Mr. Speaker, nobody disputes his claim that there were no disbursements. There were indeed no sufficient disbursements in 1999 and 2000. But to attribute the lack of disbursement to the situation of not increasing -- It is baseless because I am asking him to adduce evidence. He himself admits that at this point in time he does not have that evidence to produce; he would subsequently bring it. I am therefore insisting that until he does so, he should withdraw that statement and refrain from making that point.
Mr. Speaker 10:45 a.m.
Hon. Member for KEEA, this is the point which is being made, that at the present moment it appears you do not have the evidence to substantiate the point that you are making. Is it not the case? Or you want to yield --
rose
Dr. Nduom 10:45 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I will gladly
yield to my hon. Colleague.
Dr. A. A. Osei 10:45 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, just a point of information. As my hon. Senior Brother, hon. Salia said, if you go on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) website, www.imf.org you will find the information that the Poverty Reduction Growth Fraility (1997) programme which our predecessors had at that time was suspended and by implication disbursements did not flow not only because of petroleum. There is something we call “Performance Criteria”, and petroleum adjustment is one of them. So since at that time we did not fulfil all the prior actions in the Performance Criteria, the programme was discontinued and the information can be found on www.imf.org.
Mr. Asaga 10:45 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I think that we are dragging this point. We know the
difficulties of all Governments. All that we are telling the hon. Minister of State is that that was not the reason and I believe that hon. Dr. Akoto Osei has come up with better reasons. [Interruption.] Some other reasons. And I am saying that those are the reasons and not the fuel price increase. I am telling him that it was not because of the fuel price -- Because there were things like we should privatise -- [Uproar.]
Mr. Speaker 10:45 a.m.
Order! Order!
Mr. Asaga 10:45 a.m.
We should privatise the Ghana Commercial Bank, et cetera. It was not just because of the pricing -- This is because if I want to take him on that, in 2002, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Government did not get all its disbursements but it was not as a result of fuel price increases. It was due to other reasons so I do not want him to make it particular that it is normally -- [Interruption.] So he should withdraw because that was not a trigger.
Mr. Speaker 10:45 a.m.
Hon. Member for Nabdam, were you satisfied with the explanation offered by the hon. Member for Old Tafo? I am referring to the explanation given by the hon. Member for Old Tafo.
Mr. Asaga 10:45 a.m.
Yes, Mr. Speaker. I am saying that the hon. Member for Tafo was trying to assist him and he did but where we are still faltering is the fact that we should not attribute the non-disbursement to the fuel price increases because it was not a trigger at that time. We know the conditionalities that the NDC could not meet and that was not that one. And then the GPRS was an interim GPRS that the NDC Government was preparing and that is why it was called “interim” -- [Interruption.]
Mr. Speaker 10:45 a.m.
Hon. Member for KEEA, the point he is making is that
to attribute the fuel problem to what happened, you would rather be misleading the House if you did that. That is the point he is making.
Dr. Nduom 10:45 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, if I did that, he would be correct but that was not what I did. I said that that was one of those factors and indeed, it was one of the triggers. I was only talking about petroleum. That is why, maybe, it may have appeared to him that that was the only factor I was attributing to. I said that was one of the important reasons and, indeed, Mr. Speaker, it was one of the triggers that the Government agreed to, that we were not able to meet and therefore disbursements did not come.
Mr. J. A. Tia 10:45 a.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, the hon. Member is misleading this House yet he is not trying to yield to the rules of the House.
Mr. Tia 10:45 a.m.
We cannot, Mr. Speaker, set a precedent here where an hon. Member would just get up and quote a website and it would become acceptable in this House as evidence. We cannot, so they should withdraw the statement and later on bring the evidence. [Uproar.]
Mr. Speaker 10:45 a.m.
Order!
Mr. Tia 10:45 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, that is what we are demanding. If they do not have the

evidence here, they should withdraw it until they are able to provide the evidence.
Mr. Speaker 10:55 a.m.
Hon. Chief Whip, do not belabour the point. Hon. Member for Komenda/Edina/Eguafo/Abirem, you said that you wanted to provide additional evidence. You said so, did you not?
Dr. Nduom 10:55 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I did.
Mr. Speaker 10:55 a.m.
So in the meantime what do you do?
Dr. Nduom 10:55 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, let me once again clarify -- [Interruptions.]
Mr. Speaker 10:55 a.m.
Order!
Dr. Nduom 10:55 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, on the matter of having the direct evidence, I will withdraw the point made and then when I have those facts physically in my possession I will bring them to the House.
But Mr. Speaker, the point that I was making which the hon. Members -- the hon. Member for Nabdam (Mr. Moses Asaga) and also the hon. Member for Jirapa (Mr. E. K. Salia) -- all also attested to was that indeed, just as it affected President Limann's Government, just as it affected the Acheampong regime and all the other governments, indeed, the matter of petroleum pricing affected the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Government and every other govern-ments. And of course -- [Interrup-tion] -- yes, the matter of petroleum pricing has also affected the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Government. So all governments have had to face this troublesome matter. And that is being done this year and with the statement made within what was brought to the floor by the Minister for Finance and Economic Planning, what we had the opportunity to
Mr. Tia 10:55 a.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, I want a clarification. I want the hon. Member to clarify to us in this House whether it was the World Bank that dictated the petroleum price increases to the Government, and whether the Government could not refuse the instruction from the World Bank because they thought that the World Bank and other donor agencies would withdraw their support.
Mr. Speaker 10:55 a.m.
Hon. Member, this is not a point of order.
Mr. Tia 10:55 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, it is a point of clarification, I want him to clarify it because he is coming on the premise that if we did not increase the fuel prices, we would not get the donor support and our economy would be dislodged. So that is why I want him to clarify the point whether the petroleum price increase was dictated by the Word Bank, and that the Government could not reject it because they were afraid to lose the support. That is all I want him to clarify for me.
Mr. Speaker 10:55 a.m.
Hon. Member, I have given my ruling on that.
Dr. Nduom 10:55 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, once again, the point is that once and for all, it is my hope that on behalf of not just this Government but all successive governments, by going through the Petroleum Deregulation Programme, which is a process, not a one-time event, that with what we have started going through, I am expecting that we would be freed of all of the troubles -- perhaps someone would say all of the wahala associated with petroleum pricing in the future -- [Interruption.]
Dr. Kwame Ampofo 10:55 a.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, I think the hon.
for Finance and Economic Planning had given his three and half hours talk, I described the Budget as a wahala Budget. I derived this from the hardships that the Budget was trying to bring to bear on Ghanaians. It is therefore not surprising that today wahala is a household word in Ghana.
Dr. Osei 10:55 a.m.
On a point of information. Mr. Speaker, it was only the premium price that was increased by 50 per cent; petroleum prices were not over all increased by 50 per cent.
Mr. Asaga 10:55 a.m.
It does not make any difference. Mr. Speaker, considering previous years, there were already hardships like increase in university fees, increases in electricity and water rates, and so on and so forth -- [Interruption.]
Mr. Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 10:55 a.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, my hon. Friend is misleading the House. Mr. Speaker, he set off by saying that the Budget has brought significant hardships on Ghanaians and that is why he described it as wahala Budget; and he goes on to justify the hardships by talking about fuel price hikes. Mr. Speaker, these were not part of the Budget that was read in this House. Mr. Speaker, they were not part of the Budget Statement that was read in this House. For that reason, he is misleading this House.
Mr. Speaker 10:55 a.m.
Hon. Member for Nabdam, you may take it on board and proceed.
Mr. Asaga 10:55 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I will proceed.
Member is misleading the House by making us believe that deregulation started with their Government, which is not true.
Mr. Speaker 10:55 a.m.
Hon. Member, you may take it on board and you may please sum up.
Dr. Nduom 10:55 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I know that the hon. Member knows very well that in many, many statements that I have made before, and wherever else, I have indeed stated that deregulation did not start this year nor the year before; it has been going on for several years and so it is not a one- time event. It has been going on, and it is good that now we have reached a stage where we are having to confront one of the most difficult aspects of deregulation.
It is my hope, Mr. Speaker, that as we go through and implement this 2005 Budget, we would have freed ourselves of this burden once and for all. And with proper implementation, the understanding and the goodwill of all Ghanaians, we would now be able to use all of our monies that are collected -- revenues from a variety ways to fund development -- on roads, healthcare facilities, education and other matters that each and everyone of us Ghanaians have been looking for.
Mr. Speaker, on that note, I would want to support the motion moved by the hon. Minister for Finance and Economic Planning and hope that we would diligently implement this Budget, have disbursements made on a timely basis, so that the objectives stated can be met.
Mr. Moses Aduko Asaga (NDC -- Nabdam) 10:55 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, thank you very much for this opportunity to contribute to the debate on the Budget.
Mr. Speaker, as you are already aware, at our press conference after the Minister
Dr. Osei 10:55 a.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, hon. Asaga is a good friend of mine and I was trying to assist him by correcting him. I thought he would withdraw the statement that petroleum prices were increased by 50 per cent. It is not a fact; that would be misleading the House. Premium prices were increased by 50 per cent; the rest, not necessarily. So if he can withdraw the statement and make the correction, I would be glad.
Mr. Asaga 10:55 a.m.
Actually, I agree with him. Whether it is premium, it is whatever, premium was increased by 50 per cent and the others accordingly, as has been mentioned.
rose
Mr. Speaker 10:55 a.m.
Hon. Member for Old Tafo, do you have a further point of order?
Dr. A. A. Osei 11:05 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, his statement was categorical, that petroleum prices, as he said, were increased by 50 per cent; and it is not factual. If he had said it was the price of premium, I would not ask him to withdraw. So if he will make that correction, otherwise, he will be misleading the House. If he does not have the prices here, I will be glad to offer him so that at least, he can make that correction.
Mr. Asaga 11:05 a.m.
I thought I had already agreed with him that it was actually premium -- [Interruption.]
Mr. Speaker 11:05 a.m.
I thought that you had agreed with him on that.
Mr. Asaga 11:05 a.m.
Yes, so Mr. Speaker,

So Mr. Speaker, he is seriously misleading this House and I wonder why he is now computing our rate in pounds and not in dollars. In fact, this Government is the first Government that has crossed the one-dollar border -- [Hear! Hear!] When they were in power -- [Interruption.] So Mr. Speaker, the hon. Member is misleading the House. He is making it look like this time round, we are going the pound's way; but the international currency is the dollar. So I want him to refer to the dollar and also inform the House and the whole country that the exodus of health workers did not start because of this Budget.
Mr. Speaker 11:05 a.m.
Hon. Member for Nabdam, I think it is only advisable to deal with the question of exodus, but with the other matter, I do not think it is necessary.
Mr. Asaga 11:05 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I was just talking about the general hardships and the fact that now the exodus has increased; and also the fact that if you look at the remittances that are coming in, remittances are now very high because people are now throwing lifelines to their families back at home here. And these come in bits and pieces to buy food, to pay school fees, hospital fees, rent, books, et cetera. That is why I am saying that because of these hardships, we are getting a lot of our professionals leaving the country. Now, tackling the fact that I have to use -- [Interruption.]
Nana Akomea 11:05 a.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, it is not honest to claim that the remittances have come to this country because there is hardship. Mr. Speaker, we all know that the period of mass emigration from this country started in the
because of the increases in the petroleum pices, prices in the market for commodities like cement, rice, cooking oil, fish, meat, et cetera have all increased. Mr. Speaker, as we sit today, the price of cement has gone up and even in far away Upper East Region, the prices are very high. These are the reasons why we are saying that it has brought hardships and sufferings to the good people of Ghana.
Mr. Speaker, it is also hardship because the mitigating factors that should have been cushioning the effect of the prices were not deep enough for this hydra- headed hardship that we are facing.
The increase in the minimum wage was 20 per cent and this was far below the expectation of workers and the good people of Ghana. If you look at the increase in minimum wage, it translates to less than £1 a day; that is about 70 pence, and I cannot see how 70 pence a day could really sustain the worker.
Mr. Speaker, after four years of Positive Change and wealth creation, the only wealth created is the minimum wage of less than £1. It is therefore not surprising that Ghanaian youth and students, doctors and nurses are all leaving our country -- because our wage and income levels are very low. They are going out to look for better and greener pastures elsewhere.
Mr. K. Agyei-Addo 11:05 a.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, the hon. Member who has the floor is misleading this House by saying that because of this Budget, health workers are leaving this country.
Mr. Speaker, I want to draw the attention of the hon. Member to the fact
period during the early 1980s when there was mass hunger in this country; that was the time the mass exodus started.
Indeed, remittances have doubled and in some cases quadrupled because the people who have migrated outside now have better confidence in the country. They know that their properties will not be confisticated without resort to law. They have better confidence, that is why the investment and the remittances are coming in, and the hon. Member should take note of that to give us a more honest appraisal of the matter.
Mr. Asaga 11:05 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I thank him for even elaborating my case for me. Mr. Speaker, because we are talking of the economy, we need to look at the state of the economy and we need to be very frank with ourselves. Whether we are New Patriotic Party, National Democratic Congress, People's National Party, our economy still remains fragile, weak and vulnerable to external shocks.
Mr. Agyei-Addo 11:05 a.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker -- [Interruptions.]
Mr. Speaker 11:05 a.m.
Order! Order!
Mr. Agyei-Addo 11:05 a.m.
I am at a loss to hear the hon. Member who just spoke say that the economy is fragile. Mr. Speaker, an economy which has four months' reserves as compared with the economy which had two weeks reserve; an economy which has hit the target of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and exceeded it since 2001, can he say it is fragile?
Mr. Speaker 11:05 a.m.
You have no point of order; let him proceed.
Mr. Asaga 11:05 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I doubt whether the hon. Colleague is in Ghana. Event he President of Ghana has lamented the weakness of our economy, so for him to come and be contradicting something that is known to everybody is quite dangerous.
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Mr. Speaker 11:05 a.m.
Hon. Member for Asokwa, do you have a point of order to raise?
Mr. Jumah 11:05 a.m.
Yes, Mr. Speaker. I think the hon. Member is continuously misleading this House. He is making assertions that are not based on facts. It may be his opinion but I think that the hon. Member is misleading us by telling us that the President said the economy is fragile, in relation to the President's own performance, which when related to the time of Rawling's chain -- please, Mr. Speaker. [Hear! Hear!]
Mr. Speaker 11:05 a.m.
Order! Order! Hon. Member for Nabdam, if I may be clear, you were talking about a long period, not a specific period; that was the impression I had.
Mr. Asaga 11:05 a.m.
I am just talking about
the economy in general. Mr. Speaker, I think that we need to do a little bit more. Ghana has achieved a B+ rating -- [Interrup-tion.] I have not said anything -- [Interruption.]
Nana Akomea 11:15 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, all that we on this side are saying is that the hon. Member should be more honest so that we can have an uninterrupted contribution from him. Of course, the economy is still fragile but he should in the same breath acknowledge that the fundamentals are much stronger now than they were five years ago.
Mr. Speaker 11:15 a.m.
Hon. Member for Okaikoi South, you will be given time to contribute.
Mr. Asaga 11:15 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I choose to ignore my younger Colleague -- [Laughter.] Mr. Speaker, in the last two years, we have had a B+ rating which is good for the economy. But I think that we need to really reflect on the economy in the sense that even though we have got the B+, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) coming into the country still falls short of expectations of a B+ rating; and I think we need to do something about it. We cannot just have a B + which is a shell B+, which is empty. I am saying this because -- [Interruption.]
Dr. Osei 11:15 a.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, my good Friend has made a very sweeping statement, not supported by facts. He said the FDI associated with the B+ rating falls short -- What is the basis for the statement? If he does not have specific information, then he cannot be making that sweeping statement. If there are specific international standards that he has, not his opinion that it is supposed to be “X” amount -- I suggest that if he cannot produce that information, he should
Mr. Asaga 11:15 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I am very happy that they are pushing me to the lecture. Mr. Speaker, when you have a very good credit rating, for example in South Africa, which sometimes had C, they got to the tune of about three billion foreign direct investments. We were comparing ourselves to Brazil but they also have a B+; he should tell me the FDI into Brazil; is it comparable to Ghana? No. So I am saying that even though we have a B+, positive, it does not reflect in the attractiveness of the country. So we need to do something better in addition. This is all that I am saying.
Secondly, when you have a B+ credit rating, it is supposed to mean that when you are going to borrow on the international market, the margin on libor should be smaller -- [Interruptions.] We have had loans in this Parliament where the margins were very high -- [Interruption.]
Dr. Osei 11:15 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I was just being honest to my good Friend. But all I wanted to explain to this august House -- [Interruptions.]
Mr. Speaker 11:15 a.m.
Order!
Dr. Osei 11:15 a.m.
A B+ rating comes with a certain amount of FDI; what is that amount? He cannot say South Africa got “X” billion, therefore we have failed; it does not follow. That was the statement he made. I agree with him that we should be getting more FDI but to say that the B+ rating is equivalent to “X” amount of FDI, is simply misleading the House.
Mr. Speaker 11:15 a.m.
Hon. Member, I think your latter statement reflects what you were saying.
Mr. Asaga 11:15 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, in continuing, it means that we have to do something
more than just the rating. In terms of investment destination and attractiveness, these are the areas we have to look at; apart from the B+, what can we do so that Ghana would become a better choice than other places? I am just going to intuitively support my argument.
For example, from 1994 to the year 2000, which is a six-year span, Ghana through the Ghana Investments Promotion Council (GIPC) attracted $1.6 billion into this country, when we did not even have a B+ rating. From the year 2000 to 2004, which is four years, the same GIPC attracted only $480 million.
That is why I am saying that if we did not have any rating and we got that much, and we went for B+ rating to enhance the destination and we are getting $480 million, it means that something is wrong. Between 1994 and 2000, the average was about two hundred-plus million, whereas within this period that I am talking of, the average was 115 million.
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Mr. Speaker 11:15 a.m.
Hon. Member for Asokwa, do you have a point of order?
Mr. Jumah 11:15 a.m.
Yes, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think the hon. Member is continuously misleading this House. First of all, the hon. Member equates Ghana's credit rating with the FDI credit rating. Mr. Speaker, the hon. Member again is equating the performance of GIPC with Ghana's performance. What is recorded by GIPC is not necessarily what happened in this country. Mr. Speaker, the hon. Member is seriously misleading this House.
Mr. Speaker 11:15 a.m.
Hon. Member for Nabdam, kindly proceed.
Mr. Asaga 11:15 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I can

understand his problem. There are a few more ministerial positions available so -- [Laughter] -- Mr. Speaker, I think that the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Ministry for Private Sector -- [Interrup-tion.]
Nana Akomea 11:15 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I have already said that my good Friend should put in more honesty in his presentation, then he would have a smooth presentation.
Mr. Speaker 11:15 a.m.
Hon. Member, please continue.
Mr. Asaga 11:15 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I think that our Embassies and Trade Attaches abroad need to do a little bit more to make sure that we get foreign direct investment into the country.
Mr. Speaker, if you look at pages 21, 22, 23 of the Budget Statement, you will see a very frightening picture about the Ghanaian economy. If you look at it, you will see that industry is almost at a standstill. If you look at growth in manufacturing, it does not give a good picture of our economy. Industry grew by 5.1 per cent and manufacturing declined from 4.8 to 4.6 per cent.
I think these are not good pictures of our economy, because for us to be a middle-income country we should rather be seeing industry and manufacturing growing. The growth for this year is attributed to the agricultural sector and if you look at the agricultural sector, cocoa
did so much to contribute to the growth.
Even though we are very happy cocoa performed very well, I think that in terms of the total real economy, we should be a little bit sad that it is too skewed towards cocoa. So if cocoa fails, what happens to the Ghanaian economy? And I am saying that all Ghanaians should sit down and brainstorm to see how we can shift the economy from a cocoa-growing economy to manufacturing and industry.
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Mr. Speaker 11:15 a.m.
Hon. Member for Asokwa, do you have a point of order?
Mr. Jumah 11:15 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I think that the hon. Member is selectively using statistics. Concerning what he is talking about, he failed to realize that there was overall growth in the economy. In addition, when he even talked about agriculture, is it the percentage of the GDP in the various sectors in agriculture that did not rise as fast as cocoa. But the rest, livestock, fisheries, forestry, all of them rose percentage-wise as compared with the previous years. Mr. Speaker, the hon. Member again is being selective with his statistics.
Mr. Asaga 11:15 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I think my hon. Colleague has not read the Budget.
Mr. Speaker 11:15 a.m.
Hon. Member for Nabdam, that was not the point; proceed.
Mr. Asaga 11:15 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, he should go to page 21 and read.
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Mr. Speaker 11:15 a.m.
Hon. Member for Old
Tafo, do you have a point of order?
Dr. Osei 11:15 a.m.
Because he is my good Friend, I want to bring his attention to a statement he made which he might not have intended. Mr. Speaker, he suggested that for cocoa to be leading in growth, we should be sad. Mr. Speaker, if I were a cocoa farmer and I am doing very well and my income is going up, I do not think he wants to suggest that I should be sad. So to my good Friend, with all due respect, the cocoa farmers in the Western Region who I understand -- [Interruption.]
Mr. Speaker 11:25 a.m.
Order!
Dr. A. A. Osei 11:25 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, because he is my good Friend I do not think that was his intention; so he may correct himself and say that the cocoa farmers are jubilating.
Mr. Speaker 11:25 a.m.
Hon. Member for Old Tafo, I do not think this was the point he was making; but let him proceed.
Mr. Asaga 11:25 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, when hon. Kofi Jumah got up, I think he had not read the Budget, page 21, which I graciously assisted him to do. He is saying that the other sub-sectors in agriculture went up in growth. If you look at crops and livestock, it was 5.3; it went to 5.4. Then if you look at Forestry, it was 6.1; it is now 5.8. So saying that I was selective in choosing it -- Fishing went from 3 to 3.5; there is no big deal in it.
But if you take cocoa, cocoa went from 16.4 to about 30. This is what I am talking about. Mr. Speaker, that is why I am saying that we need to look at our economy and see how we can repackage the economy. Mr. Speaker, if you look at revenue mobilization, it increased tremendously
Mr. Simon Osei-Mensah 11:25 a.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, the hon. Member is misleading this House by creating the impression that apart from cocoa, the President is doing nothing about the other sectors to improve upon the economy. Mr. Speaker, it is prudent to start from what you have in hand. You have to first improve on that and then you spread to other sectors, and this is what the Government is doing by introducing the President's Special Initiatives (PSI).
Now, if you look at this current Budget, the Government has reduced taxes in various areas, which is going to help also the private sector to grow. So Mr. Speaker, to give us the impression that apart from cocoa, the Government is doing nothing about the other areas, is seriously misleading this House; and he should get his facts correct.
Mr. Asaga 11:25 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, if you look at the revenue front, revenue collection almost reached the 30 trillion mark. In the year 2000, it was 4 trillion; now it is almost 30 trillion. This is a significant jump in revenue mobilization.
The problems I have with these figures are as follows: If the amount of revenue that we have mobilized is up to ¢30 trillion, and wages are still very low, GDP growth is at 5.8 as reported by the Government and unemployment is still very high, then the question we need to ask ourselves is this: how efficiently are these revenues collected being used to grow the economy?
You had a 4 trillion revenue economy; you now have a 30 trillion economy but if you look at our per capita, et cetera, the GDP growth and even the performance of the economy, the real sector, it does not really reflect it. So we need to do
Mr. Asamoah-Boateng 11:25 a.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, my hon. Friend for Nabdam just made a statement that I wish to correct. He said that if you wished to consider that unemployment is still high, very high -- I want him to explain what he means by “very high”. What was the rate when he was in Government and what is the rate -- [Interruption] -- I want explanation of the “high”. What does he mean by “high”?
Mr. Asaga 11:25 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, by the time I finish, he would understand it, if he allows me to continue. I remember the same question was posed to the hon. Deputy Minister for Finance and Economic Planning when he was with the World Bank Director, as to what is the unemployment rate; and I am sure he knows the answer that he gave.
Mr. Speaker, on the micro economic front, the single digit inflation has been elusive for sometime now. Interest rates are now at 18.66 per cent. They have come down from their previous high levels of 40. However, inflationary expectations are still reflected in the lending rates of banks, at 31 per cent.
I think that we need to adjust our interest rates and the lending rates; and I think that the Government and the Bank of Ghana probably need to sit down to look into why there are these differences. Whereas the Government is reporting interest rates coming down and inflation approaching single digit, the banks are not doing enough to reduce their lending rates. I think there will be a distortion in the economy if this continues to persist.
The cedi depreciated by 2.2 per cent against the dollar. But against the pound sterling it was 12.1 per cent, and against the euro it was 10 per cent. But we generally know that the dollar has weakened internationally so the depreciation on the
Dr. Osei 11:25 a.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, I want to state again -- he is my good Friend so I just want him to state the facts properly so that the House will know the truth. I have heard him on radio and everywhere saying that we should be talking about the depreciation of the cedi against the euro. Mr. Speaker, there are some facts that if he is not aware of I can give so that he can state it properly.
Last year, the year before, the depreciation against the euro was over 20 per cent. This year, it went as low as 10 point something per cent. Mr. Speaker, what that means is that even against the euro the cedi stood very strong. Mr. Speaker, the most important fact that he has never said is that even though 60 to 70 per cent of our trading is within the euro and pound zone, the currency in which we trade is 70 per cent dollar denominated. It stands to reason therefore that we, as Ghanaians, must watch the depreciation against the dollar more than the euro and the pound; but he has not been stating that fact.
Mr. Asaga 11:25 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, he has actually restated all my figures that I stated. I thought my figures were wrong. Mr. Speaker, just to continue -- and I will soon be winding up -- monetary policies have shown that we have 3.4 to 4 months' cover of foreign reserves. But the question I still have is, last year the subsidy for fuel came to about $200 million and I know that import cover is supposed to be for critical situations.
I would have preferred that if we had this cover which is about 1.7 billion or 2 billion, maybe it would have been better for the Government now to fall back on our foreign reserves to support the crude oil importation of $200 million rather than going into our cedi Consolidated Fund. What is the use of having a back-up?
How can I have an account that is loaded with foreign exchange and when I have problems, I go out and I am begging for someone to come and then solve my problem?
Dr. Osei 11:25 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, my good Friend again just made a statement which is misleading to the House. Reserves are not accumulated so that you go and dip your hand in it and spend. Mr. Speaker, as a former Deputy Minister for Finance and Economic Planning, he knows very well why reserves are accumulated; so he should not mislead the House.
Mr. Asaga 11:35 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, if you look at the private sector incentives of bringing corporate tax down from 30 to 28 per cent, that is in the right direction. But the question we must ask ourselves is, is its location very important to corporate taxes? This is necessary so that when we are doing this reduction in corporate taxes, we should not be shouting “hurray”! In last year's Budget, there was corporate tax reduction to the extent that in some locations in Ghana we had zero tax, or 5 per cent corporate tax.
But since the introduction of those zero and 5 per cent corporate taxes in certain locations in Ghana, we have not seen factories and businesses coming up in those locations to really show that because of the policy of reducing corporate taxes
this is the achievement we have gotten. So I am still trying to set our minds to it. Is it just the reduction in the corporate tax that will be the best incentive for our private sector? We need to think about it.

Mr. Speaker, but when it comes to the National Reconstruction Levy, I think my position on it has been that it is a disincentive to the private sector and Government must remove it. Originally, when we were introducing the National Reconstruction Levy, it was meant to be for a short period of about one to two years, but now we have extended it. I want to appeal to the Government that we still need to review this rate or even scrape it so that it will be an incentive.

Mr. Speaker, after having spoken at length, with your graciousness, I now want to say that I am moving an amendment:

“That this honourable House should take note of the Financial Policy of the Government for the financial year ending 31st December, 2005 and regrets that the financial policy fails to address urgent economic problems of the country such as the intolerable hardships faced by ordinary Ghanaians, the high rate of unemployment, especially among the youth, the continued charging of the National Reconstruction Levy, the high cost of education, especially for secondary schools and I therefore call upon the government to review the 2005 Financial policy”.

I beg to move this amendment.
rose rose rose
Mr. Speaker 11:35 a.m.
Hon. Deputy Minority
Mr. Adjaho 11:35 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, that is what I want to draw attention to; that a motion has been moved so it ought to be seconded before we start the debate.
Dr. Kwame Ampofo (NDC -- South Dayi) 11:35 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to second this amendment that calls on the House to call upon the Government to review its 2005 Financial Policy. And in doing so, Mr. Speaker, since the previous contributor, the mover of the amendment has done so much justice to most of the points that are raised in the amendment, I would contribute by confining myself to the current issue of the hardships brought about by the rise in the prices of petroleum products.
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Mr. Speaker 11:35 a.m.
Hon. Member for Adansi Asokwa, do you have a point of order to raise?
Mr. Hammond 11:35 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I have a fundamental objection to what is going on here, but the Leadership has alerted me to some issue and so I will leave it for the time being.
Dr. Ampofo 11:35 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, as I was saying, the reasons that have been adduced for the recent increases in petroleum products have been varied and at various times they have included the increase in international price of crude oil, the debt management of Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), removal of subsidies on prices of petroleum products, effects of deregulation of the petroleum industry, and indeed, it has also included bringing parity between prices in Ghana and those in neighbouring countries to discourage the public -- [Interruption.]
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Mr. Speaker 11:35 a.m.
Hon. Minister for Works and Housing, do you have a point of order to raise?
Mr. Owusu-Agyemang 11:35 a.m.
Yes, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, can we be clear as to which part of the Standing Order -- But most importantly, I do not quite get the formulation of the motion by hon. Moses Asaga. So if he can go over it --[Interruptions.] I was here. I was here when he was being taught the basics of economics and what it means to have reserves and not to have reserves. I was here when he was being given a lesson.
But Mr. Speaker, we need to know what he is aiming at because he says “take note”; he has to clarify that point because the motion on the floor is approved. Does he want to amend that and say, “take note”? Can he give us the rendition again, please?
Mr. Speaker 11:35 a.m.
Hon. Member, at this stage he is seconding the amendment so let us hear him first then we will deal with that later.
Mr. Owusu-Agyemang 11:35 a.m.
Yes, but Mr. Speaker, I do not know what motion is being seconded; that is my difficulty. [Interruptions.] The motion that is being seconded, I want him to give the rendition so that we understand it, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker 11:35 a.m.
Hon. Minister for Works and Housing, at this stage I would ask you to kindly resume your seat and then we will get to that later.
Dr. Ampofo 11:35 a.m.
So Mr. Speaker, as I was saying, none of the reasons that are usually ascribed to the increases in the prices of petroleum products is tenable and therefore do not justify the imposition
of such hardship or harsh pricing on the citizens of Ghana.
Mr. Speaker, the formula for deter- mining the ex-pump price of petroleum products is very simple and unambiguous. And indeed, it sets the ex-pump price as equal to the ex-refinery price, plus government taxes and levies and margins to dealers.
Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 11:35 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, an amendment was moved by the hon. Member for Nabdam and it has been seconded by the hon. Member speaking now. Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order. Mr. Speaker, Standing Order 78 stipulates, and with your indulgence I would want to quote:
“Unless any Order otherwise provides, notice shall be given of any motion which it is proposed to make, except the following:”
Mr. Speaker, (d) says 11:45 a.m.
“a motion to amend a motion of which no notice is required or which is debated twenty- four hours after notice has been given.”

Mr. Speaker, the motion to adopt this Budget was moved in this House; it was advertised and so I do not know the basis of this motion which has been moved by hon. Moses Asaga and which is now being

seconded by hon. Dr. Ampofo.

Mr. Speaker, it cannot be based on our Standing Orders and I want them to ground this on the Standing Orders to convince us that it is tenable at this time. Mr. Speaker, I wait for your ruling. It is groundless; it has no basis in these Standing Orders. Mr. Speaker, this motion should not be allowed any procreation; it should be decapitated now.
Mr. Speaker 11:45 a.m.
Hon. Majority Chief Whip, I wish you were talking about an amendment but not a motion. Anyway, let us hear him.
Mr. Adjaho 11:45 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, you are absolutely right. My hon. Friend opposite quoted the right Standing Orders. In fact, he was trying to take some tutorials from the hon. Member for Nsuta/Kwamang but he did not take the tutorials properly.
Mr. Speaker, Standing Order 78 (d) says that a motion to amend a motion of which no notice is required or which is debated twenty-four hours after notice has been given -- Mr. Speaker, we started debating this motion since 24th February when the hon. Minister for Finance and Economic Planning moved this motion.
Mr. Speaker 11:45 a.m.
Hon. Deputy Minority Leader, nobody is confusing me. I would wish the hon. Member for South Dayi to wind up in seconding this amendment.
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Mr. Speaker 11:45 a.m.
Hon. Members, an hon. Member is standing.
Mr. Osei-Prempeh 11:45 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I was expecting you to make a ruling on the point raised by the hon. Majority Chief Whip. I am surprised at the interpretation being put on Standing Order 78 (d) by the hon. Deputy Minority Leader. Our Standing Orders are clear; a motion to amend a motion requires notice. Mr. Speaker, the exception there which is embodied in Standing Order 24 and in 78 (d) -- and with your permission, I quote:
“A motion to amend a motion of which no notice is required . . .”
Mr. Speaker, if this motion that they are bringing was subsequent to a motion of which no notice is required, there will be no need to bring any notice at all:
“A motion to amend a motion of which no notice is required or which is debated twenty-four hours after notice has been given . . . ”
Mr. Speaker, they have to give notice; they have the 24-hour range to give the notice and then it can be debated. They cannot say that somebody has brought a motion and 24 hours has elapsed and therefore if they are moving an amendment, no notice is needed. Mr. Speaker, it is untenable, it is not in conformity -- and I am surprised that the hon. Deputy Minority Leader is saying that. He has been in this House for twelve years; I have been here for eight years; nobody has said that because a motion has been moved and one is making an amendment and because 24 hours has elapsed, one does not need notice.
Mr. Speaker 11:45 a.m.
Hon. Member, I do not seem to understand you. When you stood up, you expected me to give a ruling but you started arguing again.
Mr. Osei-Prempeh 11:45 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I was giving a caution.
Mr. Speaker 11:45 a.m.
Hon. Member, I have already invited the hon. Member for South Dayi to second this amendment, so let him continue.
Dr. Ampofo 11:45 a.m.
So Mr. Speaker, from the Government's own pricing that it gives, it is clear that the increase in the international price of crude has been well catered for in the formula -- [Inter-ruption.]
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Mr. Speaker 11:45 a.m.
Hon. Member for Adansi Asokwa?
Mr. Hammond 11:45 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, with respect, we did not quite comprehend what you just said. Mr. Speaker, you have just asked the hon. Member to continue, does it mean that Mr. Speaker has ruled on the point of order?
Mr. Speaker 11:45 a.m.
I thought it was quite clear.
Mr. Hammond 11:45 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, it was not. We did not quite understand that.
Mr. Speaker 11:45 a.m.
Then let him continue.
Dr. Ampofo 11:45 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, from the pricing formula, there is no subsidy on petroleum products. The increase in international price of crude has well been catered for in the pricing formula and consumers are paying for that, the debt factor is also being taken care of in the formula and the good people of Ghana -- [Interruption.]
Mr. Speaker 11:45 a.m.
Hon. Member for South Dayi, it seems as if you are going off this amendment. Would you confine yourself to the amendment.
Dr. Osei 11:45 a.m.
I am not sure I heard my hon. Colleague very well. I thought he said something like there is no subsidy on the pricing formula. Mr. Speaker, this House passed a Bill that has clear subsidy in there. So for us to have passed the Bill, which has subsidies, and come back and tell us that there is no subsidy, he is misleading the House. So if he can withdraw that statement, because it is an Act of Parliament that, until it is repealed, we must obey. So I expect my hon. Colleague to follow what he has already agreed to.
Mr. Speaker 11:45 a.m.
Hon. Member for South Dayi, it seems you are saying other matters which the hon. Member for Nabdam never said.
Dr. Ampofo 11:45 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I insist that there are no subsidies on petroleum products. What is in there is cross-subsidy, which is a different matter altogether. But Mr. Speaker, using the formula, the petroleum product -- [Interruption.]
Dr. Osei 11:45 a.m.
On a point of order. With all due respect to my dear hon. Colleague, there are two types of subsidies which are in there. Not only do we have the
Mr. Speaker 11:45 a.m.
Hon. Member for South Dayi, please confine your argument to the amendment.
Dr. Ampofo 11:45 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to round up by saying that in the formula you will find out that the major contributors to the price hike are taxes and levies due to Government. Therefore, the Govern-ment has the capacity, the leverage to adjust the price of petroleum price downwards to ease the hardship on the people of this good country called Ghana. On this note, Mr. Speaker, I beg to second the motion.
Mr. Speaker 11:45 a.m.
Hon. Members, may I bring to your notice that I am aware of this amendment. I received it a couple of days ago and directed that this matter be decided upon today.
Amendment proposed.
rose
Mr. Speaker 11:45 a.m.
Yes, hon. Member for Asikuma/Odoben/Brakwa?
rose
Mr. Speaker 11:55 a.m.
Hon. Member for Asikuma/Odoben/Brakwa, are you prepared to yield to the hon. Minister for Works and Housing? [Interruptions.] Order! Order! Hon. Member, you are not obliged to do so unless you want to do it. Are you yielding to him?
Mr. Appiah-Ofori 11:55 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, I am
rose
Mr. Speaker 11:55 a.m.
Yes, hon. Majority Chief Whip?
Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 11:55 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, in prosecuting the motion both sides submitted various lists to you. I do know that from our side the hon. Member for Asikuma/Odoben/Brakwa is next on line; however, a new thing has been introduced, that is the amendment that was moved by the hon. Member for Nabdam and seconded by hon. Dr. Ampofo. Mr. Speaker, that introduces a new dimension so we believe we must deal with that substance first. The hon. Member for Asikuma/Odoben/Brakwa certainly will have his chance, but for the time being we want to deal with the amendment as introduced by the hon. Member for Nabdam.
Mr. Speaker 11:55 a.m.
In that case, I am calling the hon. Member for Works and Housing.
Mr. Owusu-Agyemang 11:55 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, the issue is about the acceptability of this motion, because if you look at article 179 of the Constitution, it certainly talks about -- [Interruption.]
rose
Mr. Speaker 11:55 a.m.
Yes, hon. Deputy Minority Leader?
Mr. Adjaho 11:55 a.m.
Mr. Speaker, something strange is happening on the floor; something very, very strange is happening on the floor of this House and we need your guidance for the future. Mr. Speaker, the rules are clear that before anybody speaks, he must catch your eye. It does not lie with the Majority Chief Whip or the Minority Chief Whip or anybody else to, after

somebody catches Mr. Speaker's eye, say that that person who catches Mr. Speaker's eye cannot speak. Mr. Speaker, that is the reason why one of the fundamental principles of our parliamentary democracy is freedom of speech, which is guaranteed under the Standing Orders and under the Constitution.

Mr. Speaker, it is a different thing if he had not been called; my attitude would have been different if he had not caught your eye. But where he caught your eye and you called him and he wants to speak and somebody gets up and says he cannot speak -- muzzling an hon. Member of this House -- [An hon. Member: And they call themselves democrats] -- and we know the pedigree of that hon. Member.

Mr. Speaker, we need your guidance, otherwise the “catching of your eye” principle is not going to apply in future; it is going to be undermined completely.
Mr. Speaker 11:55 a.m.
Hon. Deputy Minority Leader, I thought I gave guidance already that unless he was prepared to yield -- I gave guidance. Yes, hon. Minister for Works and Housing?
Mr. Owusu-Agyemang 11:55 a.m.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I asked for the exact wording of the amendment because it is not advertised on the Order Paper. But Mr. Speaker, if I -- [Interruption.] Mr. Speaker, therefore, recalling from memory, the hon. Member for Nabdam says that “this House takes note”; that is what he said; that is what I heard; that is why I wanted him to repeat it. If it is “takes note”, then it certainly cannot lie together with article 179 of the Constitution whereby we are supposed to approve the Estimates and the Financial Policy of the Government.
So it is an issue of disability of the amendment. If he had said rejects, -- fine. But he cannot say takes note -- What does he mean? Does he mean that in
this country we have no Budget and no appropriation?
Mr. Speaker, when an amendment is being proposed then it has to be seen within the effect that it has, and the effect of the Standing Orders and the Constitution. So he must be bold enough to say that we reject -- “takes note” means what? And for that reason it is not admissible in terms of the Constitution, in terms of the Standing Orders and in terms of the purpose we are supposed to achieve. We have to resolve that issue first and then we can move forward. And then we can debate this for three or four days and take the vote; we do not mind taking the vote but what he has done cannot fly the amendment as presently proposed because by so doing we would compromise article 179 of the Constitution, which is the supreme document of this nation. This is my submission, Mr. Speaker; this kind of amendment cannot be accepted.
Mr. Speaker 11:55 a.m.
Hon. Members, I have given my ruling on this matter. The Minority is calling upon the Government to review the 2005 Financial Policy; this is the amendment. This will be debated pari passu the motion and we will vote on both. That is all.
Yes, hon. Member for Asikuma/ Odoben/Brakwa?
Mr. P. C. Appiah-Ofori 12:05 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, Jesus Christ said something -- Jesus Christ said he would destroy the Church in a day and would take three days to rebuild it. Whilst Jesus Christ was referring to his death in a day and resurrection in three days, he was also implying that to destroy is easy but to rebuild is a hectic task. Mr. Speaker, we inherited a battered economy. We inherited a destroyed economy and it will not take us only four years to rebuild it. Mr. Speaker, article 1
(1) of the Constitution says and with your permission I beg to quote:
“The Sovereignty of Ghana resides in the people of Ghana in whose name and for whose welfare the powers of government are to be exercised . . .”

Mr. Speaker, the Government of Ghana has set for itself an agenda for growth and prosperity. Mr. Speaker, this agenda for growth and prosperity is given an expression in the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy document. In it five thematic areas have been identified; and in each thematic area programmes and activities have been lined up for prosecution in order to bring about poverty reduction.

The first thematic area, Mr. Speaker, is macroeconomic stability. I will confine myself to this area only in my submission. In this area, the Government promises to stabilise the economy. So let us look at figures to see whether the Government is doing so or not. In 1987, the GDP was 4.8 per cent.

Mr. Speaker, let me remind you that it is universally acknowledged that the style of living of people in any country depends upon the size of the national income or the
rose
Mr. Speaker 12:05 p.m.
Hon. Member for Jomoro, do you have a point of order to raise?
Mr. Ocran 12:05 p.m.
Yes, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the hon. Member is misleading the House. Mr. Speaker, in the 1960s there was development without growth. They should go and read their literature. There was improvement in the development growth. Growth per se does not improve the life of the people; it depends on the distribution of the growth. So he is misleading the House.
Mr. Appiah-Ofori 12:05 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I have no time because he would not allow me to talk at length. So the good people of Ghana said: “enough is enough” and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) was voted into power. And the decline was arrested immediately -- [Hear! Hear!]

Mr. Speaker, if the economy was
Mr. Abdul-Rashid Pelpuo 12:05 p.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, the hon. Member is making a very serious statement. But Mr. Speaker, he is basing that statement on a false assumption; he started by saying that “We inherited a battered economy; we inherited a destroyed economy”. We cannot conceive a battered and a destroyed economy from the analysis he is making.
We can only see a slow and consistent growth, which have been inherited from an economy that has been established, and an economy that has formed the basis of the infrastructure in this country from which future economies are growing. So we cannot describe such an economy where the growth of this country has seen asphalt for the first time, where the country experienced a telecommunication industry boom for the first time, we cannot describe such an economy as a battered and a destroyed economy.
Mr. Speaker, that assumption upon which he is making his statement is false and I would wish he withdrew that statement whilst he continues.
Mr. Speaker 12:05 p.m.
Hon. Member, you have not raised any point of order. Let us continue.
Mr. Appiah-Ofori 12:05 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, at the beginning of 1997 the cedi was exchanged at two thousand two hundred and fifty cedis to a dollar. At the end of the year 2000 the exchange rate was seven thousand and fifty cedis to a dollar.
Mr. Speaker, during the four-year period the cedi depreciated by four thousand eight hundred cedis aggregate. This represents a depreciation of 213.33
Mr. Speaker 12:05 p.m.
Let him proceed. You know this is not a point of order.
Mr. Appiah-Ofori 12:15 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I remember some time in 2001 the Public Accounts Committee brought the Auditor- General's Report on the Consolidated Fund. In it, it was noticed that the previous Government - that account was on 1998. The Government was paying so much money to defray interests on locally-contracted loans. Money which could have gone into development was used to pay interest. The Government of NPP realised the dangers and decided to arrest it so it set up the Revenue Agencies Governing Board, (RAGB), to supervise the three revenue agencies. [inter-ruption.]
Mr. E. T. Mensah 12:15 p.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, my good friend, hon. P.C. Appiah-Ofori is misleading this House. He is creating the impression that when you borrow you do not have to service the interest. Is that what he is trying to say? [Interruptions.]
Mr. Speaker 12:15 p.m.
Hon. Member, you must be winding up.
Mr. Appiah-Ofori 12:15 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, give me five minutes and I would wind up.
Mr. Speaker, so RAGB was set up. At the time we came in, as at the end of 2000, the highest amount generated by the three revenue agencies was ¢4.2 trillion. But with good management and encourage- ment by the Government to the agencies, at the end of 2001 we recorded ¢6.2 trillion as revenue. [Hear! Hear!] Mr. Speaker, at the end of 2002 the revenue generation rose -- [Interruption.]
Mr. Samuel Sallas-Mensah 12:15 p.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, the hon. Member is not being factual. He cannot

compare apple to oranges. During their time taxes were increased about four times. That enabled them to collect more revenue; it is not because of anything, and it is creating more hardships.
Mr. Appiah-Ofori 12:15 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, he is still disputing that revenue increased during our time. All that I am saying here is that at the end of 2002 revenue rose to -- [Interruption.]
Mr. Asaga 12:15 p.m.
On a point of order. I think, Mr. Speaker, the hon. Member is talking of revenue rising; he is not talking of the sources which were heavy taxes on Ghanaians. The revenue was from taxes. Ghanaians are overburdened with taxes and that is part of the hardships -- [An hon. Member And that is why we are moving this motion]. And with all that revenue created, Ghanaians are still poor. This is what we are telling him.
Mr. Appiah-Ofori 12:15 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, that hon. young man is my very good friend so I do not want to antagonise him.
Mr. Speaker 12:15 p.m.
You may be winding up.
Mr. Appiah-Ofori 12:15 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I am about to. We generated ¢12.8 trillion and just last year we raised ¢16.8 trillion, and next year it is expected that -- [Inter- ruption.]
Alhaji Collins Dauda 12:15 p.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, my good friend is seriously misleading this House, in the sense that he says NPP was able to generate more revenue without telling this House the consequences of that and the source, particularly, the National Reconstruction Levy that the Minister for Finance and Economic Planning himself
recognised as one of the factors or the main factor that has killed the timber industry, throwing about 31,000 people out of jobs and bringing hardships on the people and their dependants -- [Uproar.] He is not telling us that aspect of the revenue generation.
Mr. Speaker 12:15 p.m.
Hon. Member for Asutifi South, when it comes to your turn you would be allowed to contribute.
Alhaji Dauda 12:15 p.m.
I am very grateful, sir. Mr. Speaker, I hope I will get up very soon.
Mr. Speaker 12:15 p.m.
Hon. Member, wind up.
Mr. Appiah-Ofori 12:15 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, as I said, last year, we were able to generate from the three revenue agencies ¢16.8 trillion and this year the projection is ¢20 trillion. We must commend the Govern-ment for this good job. [Hear! Hear!] And I would particularly single out the former Minister for Finance and Economic Planning. I think he did a good job by setting up RAGB and that RAGB supervised all the three agencies and made sure that they did the work expected of them. I also would like to mention the Chairman of the RAGB for a good job done and the Executive Secretary, Mr. Owusu -- [Interruption.]
Nii Namoale: On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, the hon. Member is misleading the House. He is creating the impression that the NDC was not able to collect revenue more than the previous years. Every year the NDC Government collected more than the previous year. So he should give us the figures of the comparisons he is making because what we collected in 1994 was more than what was collected in 1993. So he should give us the figures of what revenue the NDC collected and

what they are collecting, and he should give us the percentage of what they have collected; and by that we will believe what he is saying.
Mr. Speaker 12:15 p.m.
Hon. Member, could you conclude?
Mr. Appiah-Ofori 12:15 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I am winding up. I would want to ignore him. All that I am saying here is that we need revenue to prosecute our programmes and the NPP Government made sure that revenue was generated and therefore the Government must be commended instead of being condemned. So, Mr. Speaker, I have finished; thank you.
Mr. Speaker 12:15 p.m.
Hon. Member for Central Tongu -- [Interruption.]
rose
Mr. Speaker 12:15 p.m.
Hon. Deputy Minority Leader, are you ready to advance your arguments?
Mr. Adjaho 12:15 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, we would prefer that we get the hon. Minority Leader to know whether he would come. If he would be coming then I would be ready to come with my arguments. But at this time, let us go on with the hon. Member for Central Tongu.
Mr. J. K. Gidisu (NDC -- Central Tongu) 12:25 p.m.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for the opportunity to speak to the amendment. Mr. Speaker, in doing so, I would want to look at -- [Interruption] --
Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 12:25 p.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, I just want to draw your attention to the objection that the hon. Deputy Minority Leader raised in respect of you calling the Member for New Juabeng. Mr. Speaker, you call him, you
Mr. Adjaho 12:25 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, with the greatest respect, the Majority Chief Whip is dazed by our amendment. Mr. Speaker, you called me, you asked me whether I was ready. By then you had already called the Member for Central Tongu and I said he should continue. Mr. Speaker, so why? Is he confused by our amendment?
Mr. Speaker 12:25 p.m.
Deputy Minority Leader, I called you because your name was the next one on the list.
Mr. J. K. Gidisu 12:25 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, as I noted, I am speaking to the amendment and Mr. Speaker, in doing so, those areas which we find very biting on the good people of Ghana, which calls for the amendment are in the areas of education and other areas which I will highlight.
Mr. Speaker, at a point in discussing and debating the President's State of the Nation Address, some of us had the opportunity to note that in terms of educational policies for implementation in this country, there are a lot covered under previous reviews in education committees and commissions reports; and for that reason, what was needed was the political will to implement those outstanding policies that could drive education forward.
Mr. Speaker, in doing so, we are disturbed and worried as to those areas covered under the present Budget, which according to the Government was going to alleviate the hardships of parents and for that matter those education stakeholders in the country.
Mr. Speaker, the 2004/2005 academic year is almost two terms old. For the Government to come out now to say that school fees are going to be taken over by Government is a disservice to the good

people of this country, because school fees are normally paid at the beginning of each term and the academic year is almost two terms old. This is a situation which some of us find very disturbing.

Mr. Speaker, also in the same Budget, it was stated that the gross enrolment ratio at pre-school levels was going to grow from 58.8 per cent for 2003/2004 to a projected 65 per cent for 2004/2005. Mr. Speaker, this cannot be so because already, the academic year for 2004/2005 has grown into the second term, and as I noted earlier, admissions into those pre- schools have already taken place on the old premise and for us to be projecting, a situation which would not be covered under the projections of the Budget, is a dishonesty to the people of this country.
Mrs. Gifty E. Kusi 12:25 p.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, I think the hon. Member speaking is misleading this House. He has just said that the NDC had the political will, a bold decision to change -- [Interruption] -- Mr. Speaker, they had taken a bold decision since 1974 and the thing never happened; it never materialised even up to now that we are in 2005. We are doing it today and he is complaining. So Mr. Speaker, I do not
see how bold that decision of theirs was and that is why I think he is misleading this House.
Mr. J. K. Gidisu 12:25 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, my hon. Colleague opposite is a good friend. The point I am making is that educational reforms for this county had been proposed since 1974 by the Dzobo Commission on Education, but it was not until -- [Interruption.]
Mr. Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu 12:25 p.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, just a little bit. The winding up would be coming but when we are being misled -- Mr. Speaker, I think my hon. Friend is talking about the fundamental right to education. In fact, article 12 of Chapter 5 of the Constitution is very clear, and when we juxtapose it against article 34 of the Constitution you can see the difference. The FCUBE comes under article 38 of the Constitution so you need to read article 12(1), and with your permission, Mr. Speaker, I quote:
“The fundamental human rights and freedoms enshrined in this Chapter shall be respected and upheld by the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary and all other organs of government and its agencies and, where applicable to them, by all natural and legal persons in Ghana, and shall be enforceable by the courts as provided for in this Constitution.”
The FCUBE is under article 38 and article 34 (1); that is, the beginning of the Directive Principles of State Policy says this; and again, with your indulgence, Mr. Speaker, I quote:
“The Directive Principles of State Policy contained in this Chapter shall guide all citizens, Parliament, the President, the judiciary, the Council of State, the Cabinet, political parties and other bodies and persons in applying or interpreting this Constitution or any other law
and in taking and implementing any policy decisions, for the establishment of a just and free society.”
Mr. Speaker, all that I want to draw his attention to is that article 38 is not enforceable in court. For six years, they could not finish -- for four years we have been continuing. So it is not the fact that we are just hiding under anything. The Government is doing the right thing and that is what the Budget has captured, Thank you, Mr. Speaker. [Hear! Hear!].
Mr. J. K. Gidisu 12:35 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, the point I am making is that these provisions as far as 1974 and the constitutional provision which the Minister for Finance and Economic Planning has just quoted are issues which demand political will at a point in time to take. Whether in the Constitution or other commissions or committee reports, what is very fundamental for the development of this country is the political will to implement those provisions; and I am saying that, now, for Government to be hiding behind those situations as if it is a magnanimity they are extending to the people of this country at this time of the hardships they are imposing through the levies and other taxes of this 2005 Budget is the point that we are calling for a review and for that matter, the amendment. And for that reason, they cannot be hiding behind those things as if it is a goodwill they are extending to the people of this country. [Hear! Hear!]
Mr. Speaker, I would equally want to look at the situation of infrastructural development, more especially in the provision of water. Mr. Speaker, if you look at paragraph 224 of the Budget Statement, it is stated that and with your permission, I beg to quote:
“Mr. Speaker, the goal of the government's inf ras t ructure develo-pment agenda is to increase availability and access to safe and clean water, affordable housing as well as the provision of improved transportation, telecommunication and energy . . .”
Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, the situation of rural water supply has not been effective as we are made to believe. This is in view of the conflicting statistics given by the Budget Statement and the report on the National Economic Dialogue of 2004.

Mr. Speaker, what I am trying to say is that the Budget Statement indicated that 2,288 new boreholes were constructed throughout the country; but if you look at the Ghana National Economic Dialogue Report, it is stated clearly at page 37 that it was rather a lower figure -- only 1,290 -- and not the budgeted figure that was constructed throughout the country.

Mr. Speaker, what I am trying to say in relation to this water supply situation is that we have noted that there was an increase in guinea-worm infestation in the country as against what they postulated to have been the downward trend; and the reason is that the cost of water is now higher and unaffordable in our rural communities than one would have expected. Mr. Speaker, I am saying this with regard to the construction of boreholes, and I want the Government to seriously look at the quality of water running through those boreholes in the country. Mr. Speaker, I am saying this with reference to a particular situation, which erupted in Latin America.

At a point in time, I made reference to this situation that if one looks at the quality of borehole water in our rural areas, one should be worried about the
Mr. Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu 12:35 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, on a point of order. Mr. Speaker, my hon. Colleague on the floor is misleading this House. Mr. Speaker, the hon. Minister for Road Transport answered a specific question on this particular road and he indicated to this
House that there was a cloud of suspicion about the contract, for which reason a committee has been set up to investigate that project. Mr. Speaker, it is less than two months ago since he answered that Question, so it is surprising that my hon. Colleague is bringing this thing back.
Mr. Speaker 12:35 p.m.
Hon. Member for Central Tongu, you may be winding up in due course.
Mr. J. K. Gidisu 12:35 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I am saying that the Government said they were repackaging that road for award to another contractor but for four years now, there has been no action on that road; and that is my worry. There is the need for Government to come and address that situation.
Mr. Speaker, I would want to say that poverty does not know party colours. It is in that light that we should be worried as to the way poverty reduction programmes are carried out in the country. Mr. Speaker, I want to say that when one talks about irrigation schemes, it is very important to look at those things that could go a long way to alleviate youth unemployment in the country. And one very big area which we should be looking at, in terms of irrigation, is the Accra Plains.
Mr. Speaker, the Volta River is just a few kilometres away from the Accra Plains. There is the need for Government to seriously look at tapping the water from the Volta River to the Accra Plains, as a nucleus for irrigation and thereby encouraging the youth to enter into agriculture. If that is done, they would not depend on rain-fed agriculture but there would be an all-year round production of crops. This will go a long way to reduce youth unemployment in the country.
Mr. Speaker, in terms of skills training and employment programmes carried out in 2004, unfortunately, the figures as contained in the Budget Statement of
Mr. S. K. B. Manu 12:35 p.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, the hon. Member is making a misleading statement to the effect that he is stating certain figures. What he has to know is that somebody could be trained in three different areas. I have sponsored somebody who learned how to rear snails and grasscutter and mushroom planting. So when the mushroom people bring their names, you will find his name; if snail people bring their name, you will find his name there; and the mushroom people will also bring their names. So you will realize that if you are to compare the figures the way he is doing it, you will run into the problem that he is running into, when actually, it is double counting that caused that problem. So he has to take note.
Mr. Speaker 12:35 p.m.
That is not a point of order at all; kindly wind up.
Mr. J. K. Gidisu 12:45 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, this is my worry, that unfortunately, the type of skills that we are trying to impart through this programme are not life-long; that is why you see people running from one skill training project to another; and that is why we are not able to sustain the interest of your members in terms of these jobs and skills training. Mr. Speaker, what I want to say equally is that, if you monitor the pattern of the skills training in the regions and in the districts, they tend to assume party lines.

Mr. Speaker, the point I am making is that if you look at the locations of these projects, of these training schemes, they follow a particular trend in terms of party identification. Mr. Speaker, the point I want to make is that poverty does not know party colours and for those programmes to be located along party lines -- [Interruption] -- For him to be pursuing these skills training along party lines, does not auger well -- [Interruption.]
Mr. Joe Baidoe-Ansah 12:45 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, on a point of order. Mr. Speaker, the hon. Member is misleading the House. Mr. Speaker, he just made a very sweeping statement that the trend of training, in terms of location, follows partisan lines. Mr. Speaker, it is a very serious statement that he has made and it is not a statement that this House must take lightly.
Mr. Speaker, I must ask that he should prove what he is talking about because when he started talking about this, he said that if the DCE or somebody else -- he was not even sure about the people who were in charge, but he goes further to make a statement that it follows partisan lines -- something that he is not even sure of who is in charge. Mr. Speaker, I think that he would either have to substantiate it or withdraw, because it is a very serious statement and an indictment on the people who are doing such programmes.
Mr. Speaker 12:45 p.m.
Hon. Member for Central Tongu, what point were you making?
Mr. J. K. Gidisu 12:45 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, the point I am making is that poverty does not follow party lines; but unfortunately if my Colleague from Ahafo-Ano could sent people to about three workshops,
Mr. Manu 12:45 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I rise on a point of order to correct an impression that is misleading. Mr. Speaker, as a senior Member of the House, I think I should take the opportunity to tell him that the guidelines for the utilization of the Common Fund state clearly that you can use part of the Common Fund to encourage income-generating activities amongst your people and that is what I did; so he can learn from that. I did not get any special money from anywhere.
Mr. Speaker 12:45 p.m.
Hon. Member for Central Tongu, it appears you did not get him quite well.
Mr. J. K. Gidisu 12:45 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I got him. I want to give him the additional information that such programmes are controlled by departments and agencies within the system but which are not within the reach of the Common Fund as he is saying. It is on that note that I am saying that the location of those projects, through the District Chief Executives, follow partisan interests, and that is the more reason why I am cautioning that poverty, which we want to reduce through those projects, does not respect party colours. [Interruption.]
Mr. Baidoe-Ansah 12:45 p.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, I think the hon. Member keeps committing the same blunder. Mr. Speaker, he has still not proved his case that the District Chief Executives and the people in charge of the programme are partisan. Mr. Speaker, he referred to hon. Member for Ahafo-Ano South (Mr. S. K. B. Manu) as evidence.
Hon. Manu just told us that he is using the funds that he has. He has the same Common Fund and that is what hon. Manu is using to train his people.
So if hon. Manu uses his Common Fund to train people and he cites him, he has not proved anything. Mr. Speaker, I think that he should do the honourable thing by withdrawing the statement he made. It is an indictment on the Government and it should not be allowed to go just like that. This House should not condone what he is doing. He is misleading the House, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker 12:45 p.m.
Hon. Member for Central Tongu, do you have evidence in support?
Mr. J. K. Gidisu 12:45 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, the evidence I am talking about is that these skills training programmes are located within the Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment and they are controlled through outlets. And I am saying that if one follows the locations, which he responded to, these locations are not widespread in the areas and for that matter they are -- [Interruption] -- You would see that the locations are more widespread in areas which are more sympathetic to Government, or partisan areas, than we have in other areas.
So Mr. Speaker, what I am trying to say is that poverty does not know party colours and in our attempt to reach out to these areas, should detach ourselves from the -- [Interruptions] -- on the strength of the hardship being envisaged, and which has already started appearing within the rank and file of our people.
I wish to strongly call on hon. Members to associate themselves with the motion that has been moved from this side of the House. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Simon Osei-Mensah (NPP -- Bosomtwe) 12:45 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I wish to
Mr. Simon Osei-Mensah (NPP -- Bosomtwe) 12:55 p.m.


associate myself with the motion that this House approves the Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the Government that was presented to this House on 24th February 2005 by hon. Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, Minister for Finance and Economic Planning and Member of Parliament for Asante Akim North.

Mr. Speaker, this Budget has been given different descriptions and several connotations. But I consider the Budget as a Budget of real hope, confidence and a Budget that would give true meaning to the saying that the private sector is actually the engine of growth.

Mr. Speaker, this year's Budget provides the requisite fuel and lubricants for the private sector to really speed up the growth of the national economy. Mr. Speaker, the current macroeconomic environment and the macroeconomic achievements in Positive Change Chapter 1 by the NPP Government formed the basis for accelerated growth in Positive Change Chapter 2.

Mr. Speaker, in Positive Change Chapter 2, the policy framework and successive budgets implemented on Positive Change Chapter 1, will signifi- cantly contribute to the developments in Positive Change Chapter 2.

Mr. Speaker, some of the achievements in Positive Change Chapter 1 include consistent and steady growth of GDP which stood at 3.7 per cent in the year 2000 and which the NPP Government increased to 4.2 in the year 2001. It then rose steadily up to 5.8 per cent in the year 2004. Mr. Speaker, our achievements include stable economic environment, reduced inflation, lower interest rates, relatively stable currency and strong external foreign reserves which currently can take care of 3.8 months imports.

Mr. Speaker, in the Budget several measures have been put in place to ensure that the private sector actually serves as the engine of growth. The Venture Capital Trust Fund and the Long-Term Savings Scheme are all policies to ensure availability and access to long-term capital by the private sector.

Mr. Speaker, reduced inflation and interest rates as well as stable currency enhance medium- and long-term planning which is of significant importance for the whole business community to succeed. Mr. Speaker, reduced interest rates definitely will affect the cost of capital, thus eventually increasing profitability to companies and industries.

Additionally, the Budget provides incentives for the private sector. In terms of tax incentives, corporate tax has been reduced from 32.5 per cent to 28 per cent. Similarly, withholding tax has also been reduced from 7.5 per cent to 5 per cent. Rates of the National Reconstruction Levy have also been reduced. For category A companies, it has been reduced from 10 per cent to 7.5 per cent, and then for B, from 7.5 per cent to 5 per cent; and for category C, this has also been reduced from 5 per cent to 3.5 per cent; and for all other companies it has been reduced from 2.5 per cent to 1.5 per cent. Mr. Speaker, I have heard on radio stations people saying that all these tax incentives are post-production incentives.

That notwithstanding, we should not lose cognizance of the fact that there have also been other conditions that augur well or improve upon post-production processes; and even if these taxes, as the people claim, are post-production incentives, eventually, if what they earn as income is ploughed back into the businesses, definitely it is going to help
Mr. Pele Abuga (NDC -- Chiana/ Paga) 12:55 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, in supporting the motion, I want to state that I am getting a bit worried about something happening in this country these days. Mr. Speaker, we are beginning to develop a view of the State which I think is very dangerous for our welfare.
Not long ago, we had the occasion to be treated to the description of the State as a property-owning democracy. Mr. Speaker, this has degenerated into a situation where we are now describing the State as Ghana Incorporated. I am worried about this view of the State because it gradually develops into a situation where the Government or Governments begin to think of the State as a company that should necessarily make profits. If you have this perverted or narrow view of the State, then the danger is that your citizens are beginning to get into trouble; and Mr. Speaker, I will illustrate this.
Mr. Speaker, paragraph 3, page 4 of the
Budget Statement -- When the Minister for Finance and Economic Planning was presenting his Budget -- Mr. Speaker, I will just quote that paragraph for the purpose of reminding my hon. Friends opposite.
“The adoption of the terminology GHANA INCORPORATED is, therefore, meant to keep all of us citizens firmly focused on the business . . .”
Prof. G. Y. Gyan-Baffour 12:55 p.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, I think the hon. Member on the other side is trying to mislead the whole House and the whole country by quoting what is in there and then just leaving off at “business”. Can the hon. Member read further and see that Ghana Incorporated is therefore meant to keep all of us firmly focused on the business of accelerated growth? He never said “on the business”. I think if he is quoting, he has to quote the right thing.
Mr. Abuga 1:05 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, the hon. Member should have listened very carefully to what I was saying. It is not in his power to decide how much of the quotation I should make from the Budget Statement -- [Interruptions] -- It is not in his power. Mr. Speaker, I was quoting the part that will serve the purpose of the argument I am making. Mr. Speaker,
Mr. S. K. B. Manu 1:05 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, the hon. Member is misleading the House. He has just said that the Government should at certain times be able to take from the “haves” and assist the “have-nots”. It is in this particular vein -- the achievement of this -- that the NPP Government introduced the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) which he kicked against. So he must take that into account in making the statement that he is making. This Government is sensitive to the poor and has programmes that are alleviating the hardships of the poor; and the NHIS is one.
Mr. Abuga 1:05 p.m.
The hon. Member is very
lucky; he is welcome from his ECOWAS meeting anyway -- [Laughter.] Mr. Speaker, the consequence of this view of the State is the emergence of things like intolerable and oppressive taxes; and the vulnerable and the poor tend to be set aside in the scheme of things. In most cases, symptoms of dictatorship, rigging of elections and so forth arise in some States even though I do not necessarily
Mr. Kwamena Bartels 1:05 p.m.
Mr. Speaker,
I think the hon. Colleague is misleading this House. There is nothing, as far as I know, in the lexicon of this country called mitigation levy. Mr. Speaker, there is nothing like “mitigation levy”. There is a Social Impact Mitigation Levy and in fairness the hon. Member should not mislead the people of this country or this House by talking about what does not exist.
Mr. Abuga 1:05 p.m.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
But Mr. Speaker heard me right; I was saying “mitigation levy”. The full term is what the hon. Member has supplied. The full connotation is what the hon. Member has supplied. I was just trying to be brief, that is why I put it that way.
Mr. Speaker, notwithstanding this spate of taxes, we cannot see a commensurate increase in development in this country.
Mr. Simon Osei-Mensah 1:05 p.m.
On a point
of order. Mr. Speaker, the hon. Member made a misleading statement which needs to be corrected. He said that the NPP Government increased the rate of VAT to 15 per cent. Mr. Speaker, this is not correct. The NPP Government has never increased the rate of VAT to 15 per cent; the VAT rate is 12.5 per cent and 2.5 per cent is for National Health Insurance Levy. So Mr. Speaker, he should withdraw that statement; he is misleading the House.
Mr. Abuga 1:05 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I am surprised. I do not know where he got what he just said from because I do not think he heard me mention anything like 15 per cent. I did not mention any figure, so I am surprised he has settled on 15 per cent. Mr. Speaker, I will set aside my analysis of the sports sector for the meantime and touch on a few things in the Budget relating to the economy. Mr. Speaker, when the Minister for Finance came to the floor of the House and announced that the threshold for taxing the individual has been raised to 1.2 million or so, there was this outcry -- [Interruption.]
Dr. Osei 1:05 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I have never,
since I came to this House, seen the Minister for Finance come and announce anything. Mr. Speaker, the Minister for Finance and Economic Planning came to this House to read the Budget. My dear Colleague is referring to the Minister for Finance; who and where is he? There is a Minister for Finance and Economic Planning who came to speak to this august House. So please, let us talk about the proper person. So who is he talking about? And also he said 1.2; there is no 1.2 in the Budget Statement.
Mr. Speaker 1:05 p.m.
Hon. Member, where did you get 1.2 from?
Mr. Abuga 1:15 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, 1.8 million
cedis. People praised this, but when you do a simple calculation you would realize that when you increase the minimum wage then definitely you have a sizeable proportion of people who are now going to fall into the higher threshold bracket. In that situation, it means that when you even raise the thing to ¢1.8 million, it still does not help anybody because many of them will now fall above ¢1.8 million and they will be taxed anyway. So this tendency to think that it is something special for Ghanaians, is only a matter of words.
Mr. Osei-Mensah 1:15 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, on a point of order. I see what my hon. Colleague is having a problem with. Increasing the minimum threshold from ¢1.5 million to ¢1.8 million, he is saying that does not matter because anyway the people would still be taxed. In the Budget it is not being stated that those above ¢1.8 million should not be taxed, but the advantage there is that the additional 300,000 is not going to be taxed. So the tax element on the additional 300,000 is waived. So Mr. Speaker, he is misleading this House.
Mr. Abuga 1:15 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, in winding
up, I am asking the hon. Minister for Education and Sports to be a bit up-and- doing because if we are hosting the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations, and we are not going to put up infrastructure, like a new stadium in Tamale, but we are going to rehabilitate the Accra and Kumasi Sports stadia at the same time, then it means that a lot of work has to be done to anticipate these games.
In winding up, I will just say that the hon. Minister should also take account of what is happening at the Kaladan Sports stadium because recently I visited the place and you will be surprised -- You will realize that in their attempt to re- grass the inner pitch on which the games are normally played, they started the re- grassing, spent almost ¢250 million on the grass and abandoned the whole place; and the excuse they gave was that there was no water at the place.
Mr. Speaker, if they did not have long term plan, if they did not know they will have a source of water then there was no point even pumping this amount of money into the pitch in the first place. Having done this, the ¢250 million has become a waste to the nation and now they have to go to start all over. The hon. Minister may want to investigate this issue.
So Mr. Speaker, if we want to really be serious about sports development then we should have a long-term plan. This is because with some of these things, you go there just for purposes of indicating that you want to do something about the place, put in money and go back and sit down because the budgetary allocation has dried up; and you have to start -- You cannot start grassing and stop it and go and sit back and wait, next year when you are given budgetary allocation then you go and continue.
By the time you go and continue in the Northern Region the whole place would have been dried up and it means you have to start grassing the place again. Normally this would have been seen as a financial loss to the State and so it is a very serious matter. So the hon. Minister might want to look at it.
Again, I think that our tendency to limit sports development to the centre is at the root of the problems we encounter in sports development. It is time for us to think of the districts and out- lying areas. If we do not begin from that side then what will happen is that we will not have the [opportunity of drawing potentials for our national team.
So Mr. Speaker, on this note, I thank you for the opportunity.
Mr. Speaker 1:15 p.m.
Hon. Members, I direct that Sitting for today be extended.
Mr. Kwame Osei-Prempeh ( NPP -- Nsuta/Kwamang/Beposo) 1:15 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to support the original motion and to call on the House to reject the amendment which, from its inception, is flawed. Mr. Speaker has already given his ruling on it and therefore I will leave it at that.
Mr. Mahama 1:15 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I would like a clarification on a word the hon. Member used. I know he is an Ashanti and so they have a tendency to use ‘r' instead of ‘l'. Mr. Speaker, in describing the amendment he said the amendment is
“fraud”, I want to find out whether he meant “it is fraudulent” or he meant “it is flawed”, Mr. Speaker, I think it will help the Hansard.
Mr. Speaker 1:15 p.m.
Hon. Member for Bole/ Bamboi, you referred to a society in Ghana that uses certain words?
Mr. Mahama 1:15 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, if he had said that our amendment is a “fraud”, it means it is fraudulent and we would have said it was unparliamentary and asked him to withdraw. But if he meant “flawed” instead of “fraud”, then I think that it should be clarified for the record. Mr. Speaker, I want to say that in my part of the country, when people want to say “sugar”, they say “suga”. Mr. Speaker -- [Interruptions.]
Some hon. Members -- rose --
Mr. Speaker 1:15 p.m.
Order!
Mr. Mahama 1:15 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, all of us have our idiosyncrasies in respect of language. If the hon. Member intended to say “flawed”, it came out as “fraud”. And I am saying that if he used “fraud”, it would be unparliamentary and we would ask him to withdraw. But if he meant “flawed”, then we will have no problem with it.
Mr. Speaker 1:15 p.m.
Order! Hon. Member for Bole/Bamboi, kindly do the proper thing and let us proceed.
Mr. Mahama 1:15 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, on a very serious note -- and I am very serious about it -- we all have idiosyncrasies of language. If my hon. Colleagues feel hurt by the statement I made, I wish to withdraw the statement. But Mr. Speaker, on a serious note, I wish to say that we do have various ethnic groups in this country. English is not our first language
and we all have certain problems when it comes to certain pronunciations in English language. Mr. Speaker, if my hon. Friends feel hurt, I withdraw. I have no intention to hurt anybody.
Mr. Speaker 1:25 p.m.
Thank you very much. Hon. Member for Nsuta/Kwamang/ Beposo, please, continue.
Mr. Osei-Prempeh 1:25 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I was saying that I am very sad for somebody as respected as hon. John Mahama to go into this type of stereotyping; it is very dangerous and I believe that those of us Ashantis in this House who have been with him for eight years have proven our merit. At least, I am well educated to know the difference between “r” and “l” and I take very strong objection to that, even though he has withdrawn it.
Mr. Speaker 1:25 p.m.
Hon. Member, I have dealt with this matter.
Mr. Osei-Prempeh 1:25 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, but I have to express my feelings.
Mr. Adjaho 1:25 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I think once the hon. Member for Bole/Bamboi has withdrawn the statement and said that he is sorry if the hon. Members in this House are hurt by what he said, then there is nothing to comment on again. Indeed, that is the reason why he stopped the hon. Member for Central Tongu, because there is nothing again; the statement is withdrawn so it is taken as if it is no longer part of the record; and I think that my Brother should take note of that.
Mr. Speaker 1:25 p.m.
Hon. Deputy Minority Leader, leave this question to me. Please, proceed.
Mr. Osei-Prempeh 1:25 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I said that the amendment was flawed --
Mr. Adjaho 1:25 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, on a point of order. I refer you to Standing Order 98. You know this matter was raised earlier on and you have ruled on it; and once Mr. Speaker rules on the matter it is final. If somebody wants it to be reviewed, he must come by a substantive motion. Mr. Speaker, he is challenging your ruling. Order 98 of our Standing Orders is very clear that once you rule on a matter -- Mr. Speaker shall be responsible for the observance of order in the House and on rules of debate and his decision upon any point of order shall not be open to appeal and it shall not be reviewed by the House except upon a substantive motion made after notice.
Mr. Speaker, you have ruled on this matter as to whether this motion is properly before this House. Now an hon. Member gets up and says the motion is not proper before the House and that it is flawed; he is challenging your ruling. If he has anything to say against the amendment he should go ahead and say it because now the amendment is properly before this House.
Mr. Osei-Prempeh 1:25 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, if he had listened to me, what I am saying is that Mr. Speaker, having admitted it, this is unmeritorious and it has no ground to stand because what they are seeking to do is to try to amend substantive Acts of Parliament through a motion. If they so
Mr. Haruna Iddrisu 1:25 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, thank you very much. I am rising on a point of order to call the hon. Member to order on the basis of an erroneous impression he is creating that to seek an amendment to a motion such as the National Reconstruction Levy (NRC), we must come properly because it is an Act of Parliament.
Mr. Speaker, this Budget Statement, the Financial Policy ending December 2005, part of the proposals deals with the main issues that border on Parliamentary Acts such as the proposal to reduce corporate tax. Have they brought the Act here for an amendment?
Mr. Speaker, quite apart from the corporate tax, withholding tax was also an Act of Parliament and yet we will be giving approval to it on the basis of the requirements per this House. Therefore, his position that the amendment is confronting an Act of Parliament is neither here nor there. Other than that he should come properly with all the Acts for proper review, because Mr. Speaker, we have announced to the world that we have reviewed corporate taxes. By which law have we reviewed corporate taxes?
We are debating the Financial Policy Statement which, in my view, remains mere proposals and therefore he must come properly when he is talking about Acts of Parliament. There are several incidents I could cite, Mr. Speaker, so I am calling him back to order. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker 1:25 p.m.
Hon. Member for Nsuta/ Kwamang/Beposo, you may continue with your contribution to the motion and amendment.
Mr. Osei-Prempeh 1:25 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I heard hon. Moses Asaga, in arguing his amendment and the one seconding it, Dr. Ampofo, saying that taxes are high; and Dr. Ampofo said there are no subsidies on fuel as it is being said because the price is ¢13,000. Mr. Speaker, the first question being asked by the man at the Kejetia trotro station is this -- When the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was leaving office, they left a TOR debt of ¢3.7 trillion -- [Interruption.]
Dr. Kwame Ampofo 1:35 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, on a point of order. Mr. Speaker, my hon. Colleague just stated that when the NDC was leaving office, it left TOR a debt of ¢3.4 trillion. Mr. Speaker, could he kindly produce evidence because there is nothing like that. The NDC Adminis-tration never had any such TOR debt. [Interruptions.] We have all the audited accounts. We have everything. He should produce evidence to prove. [Interruptions.] Go to the Ghana Commercial Bank -- We have got it everywhere. He should produce it.
He is misleading this House. There is nothing like that. Mr. Speaker, even in the Budget Statement in this House by the Minister for Finance and Economic Planning for the year 2001, he stated something different from what he is saying. There was no debt of ¢3.4 trillion left by TOR.
Mr. Yaw Osafo-Maafo 1:35 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, on a point of information.
Mr. Speaker, I think in this House we
should be very truthful to ourselves. I came to this House to tell hon. Members that there were different locations of debt that had arisen as a result of TOR's operations. I did tell this House that at Ghana Commercial Bank alone -- and that I had even discovered it much later
-- there was a debt of ¢2.4 trillion, which was collapsing that Bank at the point in time, and therefore there was the need for Ghana Government to take over that debt in order to prevent that Bank from collapsing. I did tell this House that on the balance sheet of Tema Oil Refinery itself there was also a debt, which had been put under miscellaneous debt, of over about ¢1.8 trillion. [Interruptions.] Indeed, as we went ahead we could not get all the debts in the 2001 Budget. But if, we will recall, much later in the 2002, I came with a lot of breakdowns and detailed debts. And the justification for the National Petroleum Levy was that we needed other sources of inflow to settle these debts.
Indeed, the justification for us to even talk about some additional shares of Ghana Commercial Bank going public was to raise additional resources to settle the debts. And indeed, the Bank of Ghana, in their suspense account, also had about ¢800 billion on what we call “debt in transit”, that they have paid for crude oil imported and not paid for, but the crude oil had been consumed. These are all available facts. And if he so wishes, we shall print it out and give him the details. This is because we should not pretend -- I told the House in details.
Mr. Speaker 1:35 p.m.
This is a point of
information.
Mr. A. S. K. Bagbin 1:35 p.m.
Mr. Speaker,
Mr. Speaker 1:35 p.m.
Order! Order! Hon.
Mr. Bagbin 1:35 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, that is
Mr. Osafo-Maafo 1:35 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I
Mr. Speaker 1:35 p.m.
Order! Order! Hon.
Members, I am directing that the hon. Member for Nsuta-Kwamang-Beposo continue.
Mr. Bagbin 1:35 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I am also
Mr. Kan-Dapaah 1:35 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I want his copy. I will prove from his own copy. Yes -- [Interruptions.]
Mr. Speaker 1:35 p.m.
Order! Order! Hon.
Members, let us have decorum.
The hon. Member for Nsuta-Kwamang-
Beposo, please continue.
Mr. Bagbin 1:35 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I was still on my feet; I am still on my feet.
Mr. Speaker 1:35 p.m.
I thought you had made
your point already.
Mr. Bagbin 1:35 p.m.
No, Mr. Speaker. I had
been interrupted. They did not allow me to finish making my point.
Mr. Speaker 1:35 p.m.
Order! Order! Please let us make progress.
Mr. Kan-Dapaah 1:35 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, we do not need to wait for the Public Accounts Committee. I say that I will demonstrate from this document that he is holding -- [Interruptions.] Mr. Speaker, it is there. [An hon. Member: Why are they afraid?] Mr. Speaker, a balance sheet in the hands of somebody who probably is not that familiar with the reading of a balance sheet can give the wrong impression. I am prepared to demonstrate the figure from the document that he is holding.
Mr. Speaker 1:35 p.m.
Hon. Member, you can

only do so when called upon. But at this stage, I have to call on the hon. Member for Nsuta-Kwamang-Beposo to continue.
Mr. Osei-Prempeh 1:35 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, the
Mr. Asaga 1:45 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, my point of order is that he is misleading the House by quoting figures we do not know. These figures have been bandied about right from their party secretariat; various people go to radio stations and quote different figures. Set up a committee made up of myself, the Minister for Finance and Economic Planning and the Leadership and we would go into this Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) debt. Because they have always been double counting this debt, and I am challenging the Minister for Education and Sports that we should set up an independent committee -- I would represent the Minority, he would represent the Majority -- with independent accountants and we would go through the debt that was left behind .
Any way, before I sit down, the hon. Minister is saying that he detected ¢800 billion at a suspense account in Bank of Ghana. First, I want to correct him that when he came to Parliament, the Daily Graphic carried ¢900 billion and not ¢800 billion as he said. So I am only saying that in his maiden statement, it was a ¢900 billion debt where it was broken down and the Governor of the Bank of Ghana at that time tried to explain to the Minister that out of the ¢900 billion spent between September and December, an amount of it was used for crude oil purchases which were to be paid for, and the ¢300 billion was for other Government expenditure. Given that figure, he alluded to the fact that we had spent the money until he was challenged by the Governor; that Governor is alive and we can bring him to the
Mr. Osafo-Maafo 1:45 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I think we must clarify. He is mixing apples with oranges. Mr. Speaker, Dr. Dufuor came out to tell us that the overdrawn position of Ghana Govern-ment's account at the point was ¢900 billion. That was very different from the TOR account at the Ghana Commercial Bank. So he should not mix it up. That was the overdrawn position of Ghana Government's account which money was all taken in the last quarter of the year and which raised a lot of eyebrows. [Uproar.]
Mr. Speaker 1:45 p.m.
Hon. Members, let us hear from the hon. Member for Nsuta/ Kwamang/Beposo.
Mr. Osei-Prempeh 1:45 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, if one Government chose to be imprudent, to mismanage and left a debt, another comes and says, “No, we cannot go that way, we must face life” -- In this life two people may be doing the same work, receiving two million cedis but, one would build a house, the other would become useless and die a pauper. It depends on how you decide to manage your life. And we have chosen the straight path to manage this economy and put this nation somewhere. As the hon. Minister said in his Budget Statement, we cannot behave that the world -- [Interruption.]
Mr. Pele Abuga 1:45 p.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, he has made a statement which is very, very misleading. He said one Government decides to mismanage, and then another Government decides to be prudent. That is a very interesting analysis. Mr. Speaker, it is an interesting analysis and it is wrong. I think the proper thing he should be saying is that if one Government decides to overtax its people, tax them out of existence, and another one decides to subsidise their lives, which one
is better? I do not think the first case is mismanagement.
Mr. Speaker 1:45 p.m.
Hon. Member, you are out of order. Let him continue.
Mr. Osei-Prempeh 1:45 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, and I dare even say that in all that, they were collecting taxes. I have in my hand here Act 544, introduced in this House and passed by the NDC Government in 1998. The taxes were: Ad valorem duty, sales tax on petroleum products, energy levy, reserve stock levy, hydrocarbon levy, road levy -- there were six taxes in all on this.
Mr. Abuga 1:45 p.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, the hon. Member continues to be very controversial and he misleads the House. [Interruptions.] I think the hon. Member should be called to order. Even though you have given me the floor, he sits behind his table and speaks in the microphone and insults me. I think that it is not the best. I think that when an hon. Member has been given the floor, the other should be patient enough to have his turn.
Mr. Speaker, listing all the taxes by their names does not give us any impression of what he is saying. He should give us the percentages so that we can compare what he is saying to what is now happening.
Mr. Speaker 1:45 p.m.
Let him proceed. I have ruled him out of order. That is not a point of order.
Mr. Osei-Prempeh 1:45 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I said that if he does not understand me he should not misinterpret; that is what I said. I cannot insult any hon. Member of this House. I am sorry for that impression. [Interruption.]
Alhaji Collins Dauda 1:45 p.m.
On a point

of order. Mr. Speaker, my hon. Friend, the Member of Parliament for Nsuta/ Kwamang/Beposo flagged a document and referred to it as an Act, and went further to say that it was passed by the NDC Government. I am surprised; it is Parliament that passes an Act. So he is misleading the House by saying that it was passed by the NDC Government. He may be corrected to say that it was passed by Parliament during the NDC Regime.
Mr. Speaker 1:45 p.m.
Hon. Member, proceed.
Mr. Osei-Prempeh 1:45 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I said that it was presented to this House; and financial Bills can be presented only by the Government. And prior to this, in presenting the 1996 Budget Statement of the Government of the NDC to this House on Friday, 2nd February -- [Interruption.]
Mr. Speaker 1:45 p.m.
Please, proceed.
Mr. Osei-Prempeh 1:45 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, in presenting the 1996 Budget Statement of the NDC Government to the House, hon. Kwame Peprah, the then Minister for Finance, on Friday, 2nd February, 1996, page 28 was on petroleum sector deregulation. Mr. Speaker, with your permission, I beg to read from page 29, paragraph 142:
“Mr. Speaker, we have over the past fifteen years moved from a situation where petroleum product prices were subsidised by Government to a situation where petroleum taxation is a major revenue source for Government. Some might say, why not reduce the Government tax so as to avoid increases in prices. At the same time, throughout the nation, there is a desperate quest for development for new roads, for improved sanitation, for better
Mr. Lee Ocran 1:45 p.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, the hon. Member is just confusing this House. Saying that we should raise taxes through petroleum does not mean that we should overtax the people. This is what is happening now. We are overtaxing the people, which is what the amendment is about. So the hon. Member should not mislead us. What was the quantum of taxes in those days? He should tell us. Mr. Speaker, we want to know the quantum of taxes in those days and compare them with taxes today. That is what we should talk about.
Mr. John Mahama 1:55 p.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, I think the hon. Member is misleading the House. Mr. Speaker, in response to that same Statement that was made, hon. Kan-Dapaah and hon. K. K. Apraku on this very floor of the House said that petroleum by its nature must not be used as a revenue measure -- [Interruptions.]
Mr. Osei-Prempeh 1:55 p.m.
I would like to provide an information. In 1994, the tax on the petroleum price was 56.1 per cent. In 1995, it came down to 49 per cent; in 1998 it was 36.4 per cent. Mr. Speaker, and in this one, it is 42 per cent. Mr. Speaker, they had charged 56 per cent before and this 42 per cent includes TOR's debt recovery of ¢3,000.00. A loan agreement was approved in this House to help recover the debt they left at TOR. So that if the people of this country are suffering, the NDC is
Mr. Bagbin 1:55 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, the hon. Member once again is misleading the House. The percentage increase in taxes is not one, it is not fixed -- it is a range. Mr. Speaker, he is using one figure as percentage increase; that is incorrect. He is misinforming the House, because the highest percentage increase in the taxation that we have now is 63 per cent. The lowest percentage increase is 42 per cent; they raised it from 42 per cent to 63 per cent, so he is misinforming the House by using only 42 per cent.
Mr. Speaker 1:55 p.m.
Minority Leader, you have not made any point of order. I will call you in due course.
Dr. Ampofo 1:55 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, on a point of order. The hon. Member is misleading the House. He just made a statement that implies that the debt recovery levy is what has contributed to the abnormal price increases that they have, but this is not the situation because the same levy has been in the price build-up since 2003. But this has not resulted in such an abnormal price increase. So it is erroneous and misleading to attribute the abnormal rise in petroleum pricing to the debt recovery cost. This is false.
Mr. Speaker 1:55 p.m.
Let him wind up.
Mr. Osei-Prempeh 1:55 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I am surprised but what I am saying is that we are paying for the mess they created. [Hear! Hear!] And if they listen to people on the radio, on the streets, they are saying that this Government has not committed any fault. At the last increase of petroleum, the price of crude oil was $32 ; it has gone up to $52 and therefore
Mr. John Tia 1:55 p.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, my hon. Colleague has just made a very serious statement which in fact, is misleading unless he can give us evidence on the floor of the House. He has just stated that the previous Government caused a mess -- [Interruptions] -- Please, that is a very, very serious allegation and Mr. Speaker, unless he can demonstrate by evidence that the NDC Government caused a mess, he should withdraw. If he cannot substantiate it, he should withdraw because the “mess”, if we want to just use words against each other, they should be running away from this country by now. [Uproar.]
Mr. Speaker 1:55 p.m.
Order! Order! Hon. Member for Nsuta, let me get to your point quite well; what words did you use?
Mr. Osei-Prempeh 1:55 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I said that the NDC Government created an economic mess in this country and that it was a mess they left us. Who does not know that? All the indicators show that they have mismanaged the economy, and the economy was -- [Uproar] --
Dr. Ampofo 1:55 p.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker -- [Interruptions] --
Mr. Speaker 1:55 p.m.
Hon. Members, when somebody is raising a point of order, let us hear him and let me make a ruling before others can come in.
Dr. Ampofo 1:55 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, the hon. Member is misleading the House in attributing the problems in the petroleum sector to the Government of the NDC. But I want to put on record that they have come to address the problems that they created themselves. When the NDC, realising the problem and the need to raise prices, it was
Mr. Speaker 1:55 p.m.
Order! Order! Hon. Members, when a Member gets up to raise a point of order, all Members must please sit down. There is a point of order which was raised by the hon. Member for South Dayi. That is the point he has raised.
Mr. John Tia 1:55 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, you have not dealt with the point of order that I raised. I said that he has made a very serious allegation against the previous Government by saying that we created a mess. I am saying that he should produce important evidence, otherwise, the kind of things that are going on in this Government, with the President's letter head being used to defraud banks, with -- [Uproar.]
Mr. Speaker 1:55 p.m.
Hon Minority Chief Whip, you have made your point so exercise patience, do not bring in other matters.
Mr. Tia 1:55 p.m.
So Mr. Speaker, I want your ruling on that. He should withdraw it, otherwise he should produce it now -- empirical evidence -- otherwise -- [Interruption.]
Mr. Speaker 1:55 p.m.
Hon. Minority Chief Whip, why do you not exercise a bit of patience? [Interruptions.] Please hon. Members, let us have some decorum here. Everybody is entitled to speak when called upon, please.
rose
Mr. Speaker 2:05 p.m.
Hon. Minister for Works
and Housing, there is a point of order which has been raised. I have to deal with it before I can recognize anybody else, please. Hon. Member for Nsuta/ Kwamang/Beposo was making a point that the mess he referred to was an economic mess; this is the point he was making. Is he not entitled to say that?
Mr. Hackman Owusu-Agyemang 2:05 p.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, seriously, I think that there is an abuse of process here because our Standing Order 92 states clearly -- People are using a point of order to try to debate; it is not permissible. Mr. Speaker, if people have points to make, when it is their turn, they will argue. This has been the tradition of this House. Standing Order 92 states it clearly that -- and with your permission I quote 92 (b):
“ . . . to elucidate some matter raised by the Member speaking in the course of his speech, provided that Member speaking is willing to give way . . .”
So all these interruptions are irrelevant; they are out of order.
Mr. Speaker, people are using the point of order to reply to debates and points being made here. That is not the practice in this House. I am afraid, it is an abuse of process and we cannot make progress this way. When it is their turn, they can answer all the issues that are being raised. Strictly speaking, the rules are being abused here and I challenge anybody to say that they are not. We cannot continue this way and that is why there is so much chaos here. We cannot do that, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker 2:05 p.m.
Hon. Member, I do not think there is chaos here but a Member is entitled to make a point of order and I cannot rule on that unless I have listened to the Member. I think at this stage let us make progress. Hon. Member, please wind up.
Mr. Osei-Prempeh 2:05 p.m.
Mr. Speaker,
Mr. Tia 2:05 p.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, I am still waiting for your ruling -- [Interruptions.] Mr. Speaker, when the hon. Minister for Works and Housing was making his contribution -- I believe that this is the time to tell them that when it suits them they shift the posts. [Interruptions.] The hon. Minister cannot get up and tell me that I have no right to raise a point of order.
Mr. Speaker 2:05 p.m.
Everybody has the right to raise a point of order. It is for me to make a ruling.
Mr. Osei-Prempeh 2:05 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, if we have an economy in which your currency is devalued by over 200 per cent, if you have an economy in which inflation is over 40 per cent -- [Interruptions.]
Mr. K. T. Hammond 2:05 p.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, with respect, there is something the House is glossing over; and it is in respect of a very dangerous assertion made by the hon. Chief Whip on the other side of the House (Mr. John Tia).
Mr. Speaker, he said that if they were also to do something like that -- he was not quite clear -- we would run away from this country. Mr. Speaker, is that a threat or what? And what is it that they intend to do that would make us run away from this country?
Mr. Osei-Prempeh 2:05 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, if you leave such economy with a TOR debt of over four trillion cedis, if this is not a mess then what else is it? So if I say that they had a messy economy, I am entitled to say that. And I am surprised that my hon. Colleagues from the other side of the House do not see anything good about this Budget of hope.
Mr. Moses Asaga 2:05 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, my hon. Colleague is seriously misleading this House. Even from Kumasi that he comes, he inherited assets. All the best roads in this country are in Kumasi -- [Uproar.]
Mr. Speaker 2:05 p.m.
Hon. Member for Nabdam, with a little respect to you, this is not a point of order.
Mr. Asaga 2:05 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, he is misleading the House; he is not talking about the assets -- [Interruptions.]
Mr. Speaker 2:05 p.m.
Hon. Member for Nsuta/ Kwamang/Beposo (Mr. Osei-Prempeh), please wind up and let us make progress.
Mr. Osei-Prempeh 2:05 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I am sad at what the hon. Member who just spoke has said. He said “the Kumasi that he comes from”. They should stop this tribal thing. [Interruptions.] We are talking about Ghana and not where somebody comes from. [Interruptions.]
Mr. Speaker 2:05 p.m.
Order! Order! Hon. Members, let us have decorum. Hon. Members, please resume your seats.
Hon. Member for Nsuta/Kwamang/ Beposo, I am in charge. If anybody says anything which is offensive, please leave it to the Chair to deal with that. Please wind up; I think we have had enough.
Mr. Osei-Prempeh 2:05 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, talking about mass transit; paragraph 1096; the good ideas -- paragraph 31; promoting sheanut industries in the North; paragraph 1030 -- Special housing and accommodation for farmers; paragraph -- [Interruptions.]
Mr. Edward Salia 2:05 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, I believe that my hon. Colleague has to tone down on some of the things he is

saying. I am making this point because the contraction of debt cannot be deemed to be a mess because there is no economy in which there is no debt. Debt is used to generate assets and those assets -- [Interruptions.] If we were to look at debt levels, then the economy of Ghana now is in more mess than it was before. I say so because there is more debt than it was before -- [Interruptions]-- I will appeal to my hon. Colleague to reduce the tempo in this House by the sort of exaggerations he is making.

The sheanut industry in the north has not received any attention whatsoever. It is only in this Budget that the Government has said that it will now consider -- It is only now that the Government is going to consider improving the sheanut industry. He should not allude to matters that he does not know. I plead, if the tempo continues this way, there will be a lot more chaos in this House.
Mr. Speaker 2:05 p.m.
Hon. Members, we are making progress but please let us be temperate in language. Hon. Member, wind up.
Mr. Osei-Prempeh 2:05 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, everybody in this country knew our level of debt sustainability at the time we came to power. Also, on sheabutter, I never said that the Government had done --
Mr. Speaker 2:05 p.m.
Are you winding up?
Mr. Osei-Prempeh 2:05 p.m.
I am winding up, Mr. Speaker. I said that some of the laudable things in the Budget Statement are the resuscitation of the sheanut industry and the special housing for cocoa farmers, paying of school fees -- [Interruptions.]
Mr. Abdul-Rashid Pelpuo 2:15 p.m.
On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, I think the hon. Member is ignoring the fact that this House has gone beyond the confron- tational attitude. Mr. Speaker, he is continuing in that line of argument, and we just want to draw his attention that we are in the House and that even though we are divided, there is decorum in the way we go about things. We therefore want to crave his indulgence to please stick to the rules and principles of this House.
Mr. Speaker 2:15 p.m.
Hon. Member, I have already advised accordingly, so I do not see the point you are making. Hon. Osei- Prempeh, please wind up -- [Interruption.]
Hon. Member, exercise patience and be temperate in your language; and please, wind up.
Mr. Osei-Prempeh 2:15 p.m.
On the part of school children, the feeding programme, the housing programme -- if they do not see anything good about all these things, then Mr. Speaker, I am sorry they have to read the Budget again; because the ordinary people on the streets of this country are happy with this Government. This is a Budget of hope and they will continue to support this Government and this Government will continue to win elections in this country. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. John Mahama (NDC -- Bole/ Bamboi) 2:15 p.m.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
rose
Mr. Speaker 2:15 p.m.
Deputy Minority Leader, are you going to wind up? You want us to wind up now?
Mr. Adjaho 2:15 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, the hon. Minority Leader has come; he will be winding up for us here. But I have my
name before his and I wanted to make my contribution.
Mr. Speaker 2:15 p.m.
Hon. Members, let us get guidance as to winding up at this stage.
rose
Mr. Speaker 2:15 p.m.
Hon. Member for Bole/ Bamboi, are you winding up for the Minority?
Mr. Mahama 2:15 p.m.
No, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Minority Leader will wind up for us.
Mr. Adjaho 2:15 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, after the hon. Member for Bole/Bamboi has spoken, I will speak and then the Minority Leader will wind up. [Interruptions.]
Mr. Speaker 2:15 p.m.
Order! Order! Hon. Deputy Minority Leader, it is because we do not have much time that we want to arrange this programme.
Mr. Adjaho 2:15 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, earlier on, I heard you talking about extension of time.
Mr. Speaker 2:15 p.m.
Yes, it was after 2 o'clock.
Mr. Adjaho 2:15 p.m.
Mr. Speaker, we will be very brief in these matters.
Mr. Speaker 2:15 p.m.
How many of you are going to speak?
Mr. Adjaho 2:15 p.m.
Hon. john Mahama, I and then the Minority Leader. We will be very brief in our contributions.
Mr. Speaker 2:15 p.m.
All right. Hon. Member for Bole/Bamboi, should I give you five minutes?
Mr. A. O. Aidooh 2:15 p.m.
If two Members from each side should be given the chance then each Member should speak for about
five minutes.
Mr. Speaker 2:15 p.m.
Hon. Member for Bole/ Bamboi, may I give you five minutes?
Mr. Mahama 2:15 p.m.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think that five minutes will be sufficient if we are able to curtail a lot of the points of order.
Mr. Speaker, this Budget is described as a ‘Budget of hope' and it is described also as a poor budget; but if you make a proper analysis of the Budget, you will find that it is a budget that interests or promotes the NPP philosophy of a property-owning democracy. That means creating conditions for the property classes of society to prosper at the expense of a disadvantaged sector of society.
Mr. Speaker, this Budget is heavy on macroeconomic stability. Mr. Speaker, I said on this floor before and I will say it again that macroeconomic stability is not an end in itself; it is the means to an end, and the end that it should create is one that improves the quality of life of the people. Mr. Speaker, you can have an artificial macroeconomic stability; you can have macroeconomic stability in a condition of extreme poverty. So the macroeconomic stability being trumpeted is nothing. It is the result of that macro-economic stability that matters.
You can have a country with the poorest GDP and lowest GDP growth rate with macroeconomic stability. How do you achieve that? Increase taxes and fill the Government's coffers; reduce expenditure and deflate the economy and you will get macroeconomic stability. But who wants just macroeconomic stability? We want an improvement in the quality of the lives of the people at the end of that macroeconomy.
Mr. Speaker, what do we see in this present condition of macroeconomic
  • [MR. HAMMOND
  • Mr. Speaker 2:15 p.m.
    Hon. Member, are you in a position to substantiate it?
    Mr. Mahama 2:15 p.m.
    Yes, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I will take one example. This is a report of the National Economic Dialogue 2004, and Mr. Speaker, if you look at page 130 on child malnutrition, from 2002 it
    Dr. A. A. Osei 2:15 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, in the same document from which my good Friend talked about increasing maternal mortality, he should please go to that document, page 51, paragraph 160; the Ministry of Health gives the 2003 figure for maternal mortality rate as one thousand seven hundred over one hundred live births. This represents an improvement. [Interruptions.] Mr. Speaker, he has grossly misled the House and he should withdraw. He stated it categorically but this is the statement. He is being selective in the use of statistics and I am urging him to withdraw.
    Mr. Mahama 2:25 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, I will give other indicators.
    Mr. Speaker 2:25 p.m.
    Are you using the same book or publication?
    Mr. Mahama 2:25 p.m.
    Yes, the same book. Mr. Speaker, infant mortality went up from 57 per thousand live births to 64 per thousand live births. Mr. Speaker, guinea- worm cases went up from 5,545 to 8,000. [Uproar.]
    Mr. Speaker 2:25 p.m.
    Hon. Member for Old Tafo, are we all reading from the same publication?
    Dr. Osei 2:25 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, he was categorical on maternal mortality and so I want him to withdraw. [Uproar.] He was categorical. He is a Christian so I am sure he knows what I am talking about. It may be unintended but it could be disingenuous because he did state categorically on maternal mortality. He is a good friend; I want him to withdraw on that point.
    Mr. Mahama 2:25 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, if he is so concerned about maternal mortality he can have it. But Mr. Speaker -- [Interruption.]
    Mr. Speaker 2:25 p.m.
    Hon. Members, let us make progress. The only point he has raised is the question of maternal mortality. Do you agree with him?
    Mr. Mahama 2:25 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, I will replace it with another statistic.
    Mr. Speaker 2:25 p.m.
    Hon. Member for Bole/ Bamboi let us deal with that first then you can go on.
    Mr. Mahama 2:25 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, maternal mortality has gone up; if he wishes, I would withdraw that. Mr. Speaker, I will give even more statistics. The number of children surviving till age 5, that is, the number of children dying before their first birth day has gone up from 108 to 111 out of every 1000 births.
    Dr. Osei 2:25 p.m.
    On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, he just said all these indicators are pointing in the wrong direction, but I have just cited one including maternal mortality that is misleading to this House. He is my good friend and he can say some, but he must not say all. He is misleading us.
    Mr. Speaker 2:25 p.m.
    Hon. Member for Bole/ Bamboi I have added one minute to your time.
    Mr. Mahama 2:25 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, I said all the human development indices that
    Mrs. Gifty E. Kusi 2:25 p.m.
    On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, what the hon. Member is saying is misleading. Those statistics that he is quoting may mean that -- [Uproar.] Mr. Speaker, with the NPP Government in power, data collection has improved and therefore we are getting those figures that they were not getting. So Mr. Speaker, he is misleading the House.
    Mr. Speaker 2:25 p.m.
    Hon. Member for Bole/ Bamboi, please continue and wind up.
    Mr. Mahama 2:25 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, that is because the targeting is even wrong. I remember on the floor of this House that the hon. Senior Minister, he was then the Majority Leader, said that -- [Inter- ruption.]
    Prof. Gyan-Baffour 2:25 p.m.
    On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, I have a point of order here. I think my hon. Friend on the other side is misleading the House and he is misleading the whole country. Under-five mortality rate is going up but the point is that he is referring to people who were born in the last four to five years. Under- five mortality has a lag effect of 5 years and that negative lag effect was the fact that five years or so ago things were not working properly -- [Hear! Hear!] That is what is happening.
    Mr. Speaker, in terms of poverty, hon. Members on the other side have been claiming that poverty has been on the rise; the fact of the matter is that poverty has been declining, and that in 1997

    about 42 per cent of our population were living below the poverty line. [Some hon. Members: Source? Source?] The source of it is right here from the World Bank stating that about 35 per cent of the population are now living below the poverty line which means that poverty has declined from 42 per cent to 35 per cent at this point. So we have to be sure about the figures that we are using here, and it has to be clear that poverty has reduced rather than increased.
    Mr. Mahama 2:25 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, I think he has contributed already. Mr. Speaker, in any case, the incidence of poverty has kept falling since 1986 when we started experiencing growth. We have seen a steady decline in poverty level; so it is a trend that started long ago. But I do not want to take my time arguing with him.
    Mr. Speaker, on the floor of this House, the Senior Minister who was then the Majority Leader said that Ghana Vision 2020 was suffering from cataract in one eye and glaucoma in the other. Mr. Speaker, at the time, the target was that we should become a middle-income country by 2020 and the estimates that were made by the experts indicated that we needed to grow at about 8 per cent per year to be able to achieve that target by 2020.
    Mr. Speaker, this Government came and set a different target. They said build a per capita income of $1000 by 2010. Mr. Speaker, we are in 2005 and it is estimated that between 2005 and 2010 in the five remaining years, we must grow between 13 and 14 per cent, per year, to be able to attain that figure that they have targeted. Mr. Speaker, which of these two visions is more myopic, Vision 2020 or -- I do not know how that Vision is called -- Vision 2010? It is this synchronization of the target that probably is creating some of the problems that we are seeing.
    Mr. Speaker, we are told that the Budget
    is to move us from a state of stability into a state of accelerated growth. Mr. Speaker, and in a very strange contradiction, when they were going to accelerate the economy, they set the vision for the coming year at 5.8 per cent, the same as the growth rate in the GDP that they attained in the previous year. Mr. Speaker, how can you convince anybody that we are moving into an accelerated growth pace when you are setting the same GDP growth target for the ensuing year as you did in the previous year?
    Mr. Speaker, I just will wind up with a little talk about the deregulation. Mr. Speaker, we can understand when Government says that the price of crude oil has been increased on the international market and as a result of that, they want to adjust petroleum prices in order to recover whatever deficit.
    Mr. Speaker, what the Government has done in adjusting the prices is not only to adjust the price in order to reflect the increase on the international market but it has taken that opportunity and increased the taxes on petroleum and even introduced new taxes on petroleum; and that is what we are talking about.
    Mr. Albert Kan-Dapaah 2:35 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, I think a statement has been made which is quite untrue and which should not be allowed to stay in our records. And Mr. Speaker, it is this statement that in trying
    to respond to the increases in crude oil prices we have taken the opportunity to smuggle in some taxes. Mr. Speaker, that certainly is not true; and I will explain why it is not true.
    Mr. Speaker, the price build-up is the ex-refinery price, margins and the taxes that he talks about. Mr. Speaker, the ex- refinery price has been calculated on the basis of a formula that was worked out by the NDC, so I presume they do not have any problem with it. Mr. Speaker, it is such a beautiful formula and I accept it; the Government accepts it. Apart from that, Mr. Speaker, there are margins which do not come to Government and therefore should not come into the argument. What my hon. Friend is talking about are taxes. Mr. Speaker, all the taxes that we are talking about, apart from the one that seeks to mitigate the effects, are taxes that were designed and introduced into the price build-up by the NDC.
    Mr. Speaker, not a single new tax has been added to this thing, apart from the mitigating tax -- [Interruptions.] So Mr. Speaker, when he says that in trying to respond to the crude oil prices we have smuggled in some taxes, it is not true. If the quantum of the taxes have gone up it is because they are ad valorem; that was how they set the tax. Therefore, if the ex- refinery price goes up the taxes will go up. It is going up as a result of a law that was put in place by the NDC.
    So they should not mislead the House into believing that any new taxes have been introduced. The formula for the computation of the ex-refinery price was the good work done by the NDC which we have accepted. The taxes were all designed by the brains from the NDC; so Mr. Speaker, I do not know why we go out and tell the world something that we know is certainly not the case.
    And Mr. Speaker, if I may add, words that are uttered in this House do not just end up in Ghana; they go outside. They are used by economists to make all sorts of analyses against the country and I think we have got to be very cautious when we are making statements which we know are not necessarily true.
    Mr. Mahama 2:35 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, this is most unfortunate. Mr. Speaker, you are new to this House and so you might not be aware that my Friend is very good at filibustering. When you said I should wind up, because I said I will conclude on petroleum, he must find a way of wasting my time so that you will ask me to sit down. [Interruption.]
    Mr. Speaker 2:35 p.m.
    But I have not asked you to sit down.
    Mr. Mahama 2:35 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, I am just drawing your attention to what he tried to do.
    Mr. Speaker, I did not say that they have smuggled new taxes. I said Government has taken advantage of the opportunity of adjusting the petroleum price, in recognition of the increase on the international market, to increase the taxes on petroleum and add some new taxes. That is all that I said. All that he said do not contradict what I said. He spent three minutes of my time filibustering and -- But Mr. Speaker, if you would allow me I will just continue; I was almost finishing --
    Mr. Speaker 2:35 p.m.
    Yes, continue and wind up.
    Mr. Mahama 2:35 p.m.
    Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, if you look at the taxes, aside of the fact that various taxes have gone up -- Exploration Levy has gone up, Road Fund Levy has gone up; all the ad valorem taxes and things have gone up -- they have introduced Social
    Mr. Kan-Dapaah 2:35 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, what the hon. Member has just said is not true. The cross-subsidy levy, if he cares to have a look, is positive under premium and negative under kerosene and gas oil; and it has a zero effect. All that we are saying is that there is 500 cedis on premium which has been used to reduce the prices on other products. Mr. Speaker, he understands it very well and I am surprised that he is using it to confuse the House. I believe, Mr. Speaker, he must be asked to withdraw it because he knows the position.
    Dr. Ampofo 2:35 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, on a point of order. I just think that it is very important to put certain things on record -- the right things. The hon. Minister is saying that the Cross-subsidization Levy is not yielding benefit to Government; this is not true. The hon. Member contributing is saying the right thing; that a cross-subsidy ought to be revenue-neutral. That means that if you work out the net it should be close to zero; that is, not to benefit anybody because we are subsidizing from internal arrangement.
    And when you calculate the net, which I am sure he knows how to, you do not just look at the negatives and positives and add them across; no. You take the positives and
    Mr. Hammond 2:35 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, the other day on Adom Radio, the hon. Member was saying that he had no difficulty whatsoever with the cross-subsidy because it was perfect; it was legitimate. Is he changing his mind now?
    Dr. Osei 2:35 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, on a point of order. Mr. Speaker, my senior brother just mentioned a sum which beats my mind. He talked about 38 billion dollars -- [Interruptions.] So withdraw the dollars or else the records will show.
    Mr. K. O. Agyapong 2:45 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, my senior Colleague is misleading the House.
    Mr. Speaker 2:45 p.m.
    Which senior Colle-
    ague?
    Mr. K. O. Agyapong 2:45 p.m.
    Dr. Ampofo.
    If he cares to know, I would want him to be aware that of the total consumption of petroleum products, 50 per cent comes from diesel. So if -- [Interruptions.] If you have just calculated 500 and reached 38 million, then what is the essence of the cross- subsidization? Let me teach him.
    Mr. Speaker 2:45 p.m.
    Hon. Member for Bole/
    Bamboi, you must be concluding.
    Mr. Mahama 2:45 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, therefore
    the 500 cedi Cross-subsidy Levy on petroleum over-recovers, in terms of the negatives in respect of gasoil, kerosene and others, which if you calculate would result in the net revenue of 38 billion;
    that is what they have been saying. But Mr. Speaker, the point I have been making is that prices, as a component of the petroleum price, have increased and I am saying that Government took the opportunity of adjusting the petroleum price to the increase on the world market and tried to rake in more revenue from petroleum.
    Mr. Speaker 2:45 p.m.
    Are you concluding?
    Mr. Mahama 2:45 p.m.
    Yes, Mr. Speaker. So if you would notice, taxes on petroleum products, that is the average, have gone up from 36 per cent to almost 43 per cent. That is almost a seven (7) percentage point increase in terms of taxes and revenue on petroleum. Mr. Speaker, premium alone has a tax build-up of almost ¢13,000; of the price of ¢30,000, ¢13,000 is on taxes alone.
    If you want to cushion the people, Mr. Speaker, if you take away the Deregulation Mitigation Levy, you wipe out the excess revenue that is coming from the Cross Subsidization Levy, you maintain Road Fund Levy and Exploration Levy and all the other levies that were increased at their same level, you can come up with a petroleum price of about ¢25,000 or less, which would have been a better package for the people of Ghana than the present package.
    Mr. Speaker, deregulation -- Social Impact Mitigation Levy, you go and slap taxes on something, increase the prices and then go and take an additional ¢2,000 from my pocket and say, “I am going to use this money to mitigate the effect of the hardship that I have imposed on you” What logical sense is that?
    Mr. Speaker 2:45 p.m.
    Hon. Member, are you concluding?
    Mr. Mahama 2:45 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, my last sentence would be about the decision to -- [Interruption.]
    Mr. Kan-Dapaah 2:45 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, point of information. I am sorry to intervene.
    Mr. Mahama 2:45 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, I do not need the information -- [Interruption.]
    Mr. Speaker 2:45 p.m.
    Order!
    Mr. Kan-Dapaah 2:45 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, he keeps mentioning certain figures which should not be allowed to go into the records. [Interruptions.] Mr. Speaker, it is totally untrue -- [Uproar.]
    Mr. Speaker 2:45 p.m.
    Order! Order! Yes, do you have a point of order to raise?
    Mr. Kan-Dapaah 2:45 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, I have a point of information to give, which is -- [Some hon. Members: No!] [Uproar.] A point of correction, Mr. Speaker.
    Mr. Speaker 2:45 p.m.
    All right.
    Mr. Kan-Dapaah 2:45 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, the hon. Member for South Dayi earlier said that we were going to gain ¢38 billion from the Cross-subsidization Levy and my hon. Friend is repeating it. Mr. Speaker, that is untrue and I want them to prove it. Rather the Cross-subsidization Levy is going to generate a deficit. [Some hon. Members: No!] Yes, Mr. Speaker, and I want to take him on. I want to take him on to come and prove to the House, because he is lying to the House.
    Mr. Speaker, it is not true and I challenge him that the ¢38 billion that he said he has calculated is wrong; rather all this is going to lead to a reduction of something of over ¢100 billion to
    Dr. Ampofo 2:45 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, I take strong exception to me being referred to as lying, because I think the hon. Member knows my background. I have worked this thing myself -- [Interruptions.]
    Mr. Kan-Dapaah 2:45 p.m.
    As soon as I uttered the word, I realized that I had made a serious mistake and I want to apologise without any reservation. I am very sorry, it came just like that.
    Mr. Speaker 2:45 p.m.
    Hon. Member for South Dayi, accept it in that spirit.
    Dr. Ampofo 2:45 p.m.
    I have accepted it. Mr. Speaker, once he has withdrawn that expression, I want still to put on record that I have put this on the computer; I have worked this myself. They have not worked this before -- [Interruptions.] Do they know how to work this out?
    Mr. K. O. Agyapong 2:45 p.m.
    We gave you the formula.
    Mr. Mahama 2:45 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, therefore, it is obvious from the analysis I have made that the Budget is certainly not pro-poor, even in terms of its targeting. The Ghana Living Standards Survey has shown that there are certain parts of this country that are the most deprived and depressed. Mr. Speaker, if you look at the Budget, there is no special targeting for those areas -- [Interruption.]
    Mr. Speaker 2:45 p.m.
    Are you winding up, hon. Member?
    Mr. Mahama 2:45 p.m.
    Yes, I am winding up. Mr. Speaker, already the effects of the Budget are being felt. Mr. Speaker, the President cannot understand why the price of cement has gone up. It has gone up because transport cost on cement has gone up. Mr. Speaker, even if as they talk -- [Interruption.]
    rose
    Mr. Speaker 2:45 p.m.
    Hon. Minister for Private Sector Development, do you have a point of order to raise?
    Mr. Bartels 2:45 p.m.
    Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my hon. Friend who is held very highly in this House -- [Interruptions.] Do they not understand that English? He is held in very high esteem, if that is what they want me to say; that is the English they understand. Mr. Speaker, he is misleading this honourable House. The price of cement was actually raised by GHACEM before the Budget was read. So, it is not true. It is not true that the price has been hiked up as a result of the fuel price increase. [Interruptions.]
    Mr. Speaker 2:55 p.m.
    Hon. Member for Bole/ Bamboi, what do you say to the price of cement?
    Mr. Mahama 2:55 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, I did not want to provoke another debate on cement. It was my concluding sentence and if the hon. Member had been patient he could have passed on his concerns to the Leadership to raise it when they are contributing.
    But Mr. Speaker, the President expressed concern about the recent increase in cement prices, from about last week. After the petroleum price increase - Mr. Speaker, when GHACEM did the increment before the Budget, cement prices went up to ¢52,000 per bag. Mr. Speaker, over the last week and a half they have gone up to ¢62,000 per bag; and that is what the President was expressing concern about.
    Mr. Speaker 2:55 p.m.
    Please, conclude.
    Mr. Mahama 2:55 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, the point I was making was that even this ¢52,000 that is being talked about, in my constituency a bag of cement is ¢76,000. Mr. Speaker, and that is because of the transport cost.
    Mr. Bartels 2:55 p.m.
    On a point of Order. Mr. Speaker, the hon. Member is repeating the false statement over and over again. There has been only one increase in the price of cement by GHACEM, ex-factory, since the beginning of the year. We ourselves have been monitoring what they have been doing and I was with the President when he made that statement. The truth of the matter is that, that increase has absolutely nothing to do with the Budget or the petrol prices. [Uproar.]
    Mr. Speaker 2:55 p.m.
    Hon. Member for Bole/
    Bamboi, you have exhausted your time.
    Mr. Mahama 2:55 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, it is clear that my hon. Friend is out of touch with the realities on the market. He is monitoring ex-refinery prices and I am talking about market prices. At the end of last year cement was ¢48,000 per bag and then it moved up at the beginning of this year to
    ¢52,000.
    In Bole, it is ¢76,000; in Garu Tempane it is ¢95,000 per bag. Mr. Speaker, these are some of the fall-outs of the Budget.
    On that note, Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank you very much for your indulgence.
    Some hon. Members - rose -
    Mr. Speaker 2:55 p.m.
    Hon. Members, I will call you in due course; do not worry. Leadership, how many more should be called on either side? Maximum of two? I do direct now that the maximum should be two, including winding up. Hon. Minister, five minutes or ten minutes?
    Minister for Education and Sports (Mr. Yaw Osafo-Maafo) 2:55 p.m.
    No, Mr. Speaker, I will not go more than five minutes. Mr. Speaker, a budget is a very serious and important document, taking its roots from article 179 of the Constitution. Mr. Speaker, looking at the amendment proposed, I am inclined to believe that this Budget has not been read thoroughly.
    Indeed, if you look at the criticisms of the plan, some say that Vision 2020 projected a growth of 8 per cent. I completely agree. What was the growth in the year 2000? It was 3.7 per cent. So if you project 8 per cent and you have 3.7 per cent, you are certainly so far away from your target; you can talk about the vision of a cataract or glaucoma and that is why the Senior Minister referred to it as such.
    Mr. Pele Abuga 2:55 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, on a point of order. Mr. Speaker, the hon. Minister is misleading the House. When you reduce the corporate tax, you do not by that act alone release that amount of money back to the private sector. There
    are many other conditions. If you leave the Reconstruction Levy intact, if the environment is not right, if you increase the price of fuel, and Mr. Speaker, when the other conditions are not right the businesses are already collapsing. So for him to say that they have not taken that money from them and for that matter they have released it back to them, when the money did not even exist in their hands in the first place, is like a visa lottery. So Mr. Speaker, he should not be saying that.
    Mr. Osafo-Maafo 2:55 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, I will choose to ignore his comments. He used to work at Internal Revenue Service (IRS). When you are analysing the taxation bag -- How much are we going to take back from business? About ¢910 billion. That money is no more to be taken away, so what are we going to do? We are giving it back to business and business must reinvest. So if he disagrees with me that is his opinion.
    Mr. Speaker, if you look at the social sector, the Budget has looked at the private sector where we are trying to generate employment. While trying to do this, we are at the same time trying to keep the microeconomy prudently stable so that we could kill two birds with one stone.
    Mr. Moses Asaga 3:05 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, on a point of order. Mr. Speaker, the hon. Member's statistics has not got a deflator. The population is growing so what does

    he expect? Enrolment must increase. So he should put it at constant units for us to know; the population is growing.
    Mr. Osafo-Maafo 3:05 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, if he listens well, I will go to the parity index. Now if we go to the parity index of enrolment then we are taking into consideration population growth. Parity index has gone up from 0.91 to 0.93 and therefore there is an increase. There is an increase when you take into consideration population growth. Mr. Speaker -- [Interruption.]
    Mr. Asaga 3:05 p.m.
    On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, he has seen that the point I was making is correct in the sense that if we look at absolute figures, it looks like there is a real big increase. But when we look at the parity, because it has been factored in, we will see that it is almost insignificant.
    Mr. Speaker 3:05 p.m.
    Hon. Member, that is not a point of order.
    Mr. Osafo-Maafo 3:05 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, it shows that the hon. Member for Nabdam does not seem to understand the parity index. The parity index takes into consideration the population. It has gone up from 0.91 to 0.93 so there is an increase -- [Interruption.]
    Mr. Mahama 3:05 p.m.
    On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, the hon. Member is misleading the House.
    Mr. Speaker, he is seeking to create the impression that increase in school enrolment is just a recent phenomenon. Mr. Speaker, child enrolment in primary schools, and indeed, across all sectors of the education level has been going up for many years before now.
    Mr. Osafo-Maafo 3:05 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, that is not true. Indeed, there was a dip in enrolment from the year 2000 to 2001. The statistics is there. And when we refer to the World Bank Appraisal Report on Ghana's education it has dropped two consecutive times. So he should get his facts right.
    Mr. Speaker, this Budget seeks to really expand the economy; this Budget indeed seeks to accelerate growth. And when we talk about Ghana being incorporated in the growth acceleration and somebody is against that, I cannot understand. We need that espirit d'corps for a country where everybody is a shareholder. It cannot be only NPP and its supporters. We are talking about Ghanaians; everybody is part of that company; everybody is part of that drive which we are seeking to achieve.
    Mr. Speaker, if anybody reads -- and we do not have time to do the analysis -- The initiatives as contained at pages 263 right down to 285 are very clear, that this Budget is indeed, a Budget of hope. It is a Budget that touches the right knobs for growth; it is a Budget which touches the knob for social improvement. And for it to be reviewed or amended on this frivolous thing is uncalled for. All must support the Budget; it is the right spirit; it is in the right direction and we must defeat the amendment massively on this floor.
    Mr. E. K. D. Adjaho (NDC -- Avenor- Ave) 3:05 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, I rise to support the amendment and in so doing I would want to refer to pages 302 and 303 of the Budget Statement of this year.
    Mr. Speaker, I am referring specifically to appendix table 2 and appendix table 3. And Mr. Speaker, you will see that indirect taxes that we made from petroleum taxation alone last year are ¢3.1 trillion.
    Dr. Osei 3:05 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, on a point
    of order. My senior Brother, the hon. Member for Avenor/Ave should not mislead this House. In fact, before I came to the House, the Managing Director of TOR called to remind me about the payments due to them on under-recovery.
    Mr. Speaker, last year the debt recovery
    levy that the previous House imposed only brought in approximately a little over hundred billion cedis a year. The under-recovery at TOR that was submitted by the National Petroleum Tender Board average over two hundred billion cedis a month. TOR is demanding from the Government, as I speak, the equivalent of ¢634 billion in subsidies. So it is incorrect for the hon. Member for Avenor- Ave to say that there were no subsidies. Without the Government paying the additional over a hundred billion cedis, TOR would have lost all that money. So I would want my senior Brother to withdraw his statement.
    Mr. Adjaho 3:05 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, I am using
    their own figures. I did not produce this Budget; this is the Budget they brought to this House. I referred to page 303 and I saw that petroleum tax brought in ¢3.1 [trillion into the Consolidated Fund.
    They are also saying that utility price subsidies of which TOR subsidies for under-recovery is ¢1.77 trillion. This is their own figure.
    Mr. Speaker, I am saying that if we
    Dr. Osei 3:05 p.m.
    On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, with all due respect, my senior Brother knows very well that this is not the mathematics that is used in budget making. If I may try and correct him. His own numbers -- what they say, is the following that, “Had the Government not paid ¢1.7 trillion, it would have had available ¢1.7 trillion to build schools in your constituencies.” That is how the Budget is to be interpreted. We do not have to take the receipts of the petroleum revenue and subtract the subsidy and say that is what it says. The Budget is not interpreted that way.
    Mr. Adjaho 3:05 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, fortunately he is the Deputy Minister in charge of expenditure; he will release some money for us to go back to GIMPA so that we will give him more training.
    Mr. Speaker, I agree, if we are saying
    Mr. Hammond 3:05 p.m.
    On a point of order.

    Mr. Speaker, we on this side are getting extremely worried by the continuous allusion to the fact that there is no subsidy. My hon. Colleague there is trying very hard and giving the figures and yet he says there is no subsidy.

    Mr. Speaker, we have got to get two

    things right. There is a fundamental difference between taxation, a deliberate action by the Government to raise revenue. That is one -- taxation.

    Secondly, Mr. Speaker, there is a different question altogether about the matter of subsidy. We are saying that after the taxes and the margins and everything had gone into the making up of the twenty thousand cedis ex-pump price the last time, Mr. Speaker, the Government had to look elsewhere for money that it had not budgeted for to the tune of ¢1.7, ¢1.9 trillion by way of subsidy.

    Mr. Speaker, just as he was saying -- I knew the figures yesterday -- we have been told about how much had to go into the December one, what has gone into the February one and what went into the January. In December, Mr. Speaker, if I should also tell him, about two hundred and twenty billion; January -- two hundred and fifty billion.

    Mr. Speaker, from 1st of February to the 17th February, before the increase on the 18th, we had to put in another one hundred and eighty-six billion. What is he talking about -- no subsidy? They should get this subsidy and taxation figures right and not confuse Ghanaians.
    Mr. Adjaho 3:15 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, unfortu- nately he has said nothing. Mr. Speaker, so that is the first point.
    Mr. Speaker, the second point I want to make, which the hon. Member for Nabdam made when he was moving the amendment motion, is with regard to reliance on traditional exports like cocoa and the rest to drive the economy. He made a very important point and the Member for Old Tafo was trying to take him on.
    Mr. Speaker, I just want to refer this honourable House to the Hansard of 25th February 1999, column 2110 -- and with your permission, I quote -- and these are the words of hon. Osafo-Maafo:
    “Mr. Speaker, if you look at the parameters to make us a middle- income group then we must be worried about things like exports. The last 17 years, the percentage of Ghana's total exports was occupied by traditional goods, that is, cocoa, gold and timber have been around 80 per cent. What kind of transformation is this? There is no difference between us and Sir Guggisberg's time because I looked at the records and in 1927 when Achimota was opened Ghana's primary products contributed 84 per cent in its exports; today it is about 81 per cent.”
    These are the words of our former Minister for Finance and Economic Planning.
    Mr. Speaker, what are we seeing now? Look at the Budget Statement; we are seeing that it is being driven by the same cocoa again. And he is saying that if it is driven by cocoa and those things, there is no way we can reach the middle-income group. This is what he is saying and this is what - In fact, he handed over to hon. Baah-Wiredu on this note.
    The very thing that he was criticising, the very thing that he said in 1999 could not take us to the middle-income group -- It was on this note, “Positive Change Chapter One” that he honourably handed
    Mr. Asaga 3:15 p.m.
    On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, I think that a statement was made against the Minister for Finance and Economic Planning when he was not here and I think the hon. Member has been unfair to him; if he could repeat it and let him respond to it.
    Mr. Adjaho 3:15 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, I quoted some of his wise saying from the Hansard when he was the Ranking Member for Trade and Industry and when he was moving an amendment motion to the Financial Statement. Let me just quote it. [Interruption.] Mr. Speaker, I would refer him to the appropriate column of the Hansard.
    Dr. Osei 3:15 p.m.
    On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, he just made a statement that the Government is not serious about following up -- That is misinforming this House. Mr. Speaker, as I speak, even last night till 11.00 pm, the people in charge of preparing the Legislative Instrument (L.I.), that is, for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) had prepared this L.I. that would be brought to the House. But to say - [Interruption.] His statement was that the Government is not serious and until this is approved they cannot bring it. The statement that the Government is not serious is a serious indictment and he should withdraw. This is because the Government is actually working on it, but because he was not privy to the information, he made that statement. So he should withdraw.
    Mr. Adjaho 3:15 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, I am
    repeating what I said earlier on, that the Government is not serious. When you come and announce a Budget Statement it must be accompanied with the necessary financial Bills.
    Mr. Speaker, I am saying that from 24th February, 2005 when this Budget was announced and as we are talking now -- I do not work at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, and if the Bill is not
    introduced into this House nobody would know. No Bill has been introduced to give legal effect to those things they claim they are going to do.
    Mr. Speaker, it is also important to say that the number of taxes that this Regime has introduced -- The Airport Tax was increased from $20 to $50; National Reconstruction Levy was introduced - [Interruption] -- The National Health Insurance Levy and a whole lot of things. When we get to the National Health Insurance it is very, very important and that is why when we are in this House we should be very careful with the kind of things that we say. I know our brothers were opposing some of these taxes.
    Mr. Speaker, this is what hon. Kan- Dapaah had to say on 1st March 2000, which could be found in columns 2565 and 2566. He said:
    “Mr. Speaker, Value Added Tax (VAT), they are going to increase it by two and half per cent.”
    That was when we wanted to introduce the GETFund. My worry is that any time they run into problems there is a special levy. Therefore, we had the Road Fund; we had the Petroleum Levy, and now we have an Educational Fund. Only God knows when they are going to have another increase in VAT of 50 per cent for Health Fund.
    And there he comes -- One of the people who seriously defended the increase in the VAT was hon. Kan-Dapaah.
    Mr. Speaker, I believe that the taxes are too much. There are a lot of graduates from our universities who are roaming the streets without getting jobs. It is important to create the environment for them to get the jobs.

    Mr. Speaker, the other time when they slapped a tax on the timber industry, we told them that they were going to collapse the timber industry. At that time they did not take us seriously. The timber industry has virtually collapsed; jobs have been lost -- about 40 to 45 thousand jobs have been lost in the timber industry. Fortunately, this time round, they say they are going to abolish some of those taxes after the harm has been done.

    Mr. Speaker, these are some of the

    Mr. Speaker, these are the things that we are talking about, that looking at this Budget, looking at the projections, looking at the totality of it, it needs a very serious review and all that they have to do is to take it quietly and go and do the necessary review and then bring it back so that we would help them and approve it for them. At this level and in this Budget, based on hon. Osafo-Maafo's own statement which I have just quoted, there is no way this Budget can send us to the middle-income group.

    Mr. Speaker, I would want to end here by saying that the substantive motion should be rejected by this House-- [Uproar] -- and then they should vote for the amendment motion. Mr. Speaker, the good news about the amendment motion today is that I have got the Cabinet Ministers running from their offices and they are here to come and vote. Thank you very much. [Hear! Hear!]

    Mr. A. S. K. Bagbin (NDC -- Nadowli

    West): Mr. Speaker, I stand to urge my hon. Colleagues in the House to massively vote for the amendment motion and reject the original motion.

    Mr. Speaker, I do this in the spirit in which the Government brought the
    Mr. Adjaho 3:25 p.m.


    Budget to this House, that the intention of Government is to present a Budget of hope; the intention of Government is to put in place a pro-poor Budget; the intention of Government is to make sure that our Budget is gender sensitive.

    Mr. Speaker, after going through the Budget, I have come to the conviction that if we are to implement the Budget as presented to this House, it is rather going to deepen poverty; it is rather going to worsen the situation and impose intolerable hardships on the people of Ghana; it is rather going to cause mass unemployment; it is rather going to once again disintegrate industry; it is rather going to make it impossible for the good people of Ghana to access education. Mr. Speaker, that is why we believe that to get Government well in tune with the vision that we set for ourselves, it is important that we amend the motion to include what we have proposed for the House.
    Mr. Osafo-Maafo 3:25 p.m.
    On a point of
    order. In fact, this is about the third time the Minority Leader has made this statement. He is completely not only out of tune but he does not seem to understand the argument which went on in my office. Mr. Speaker, I was explaining to NUGS that when you do a projection in the
    Budget, you would do a projection this year and your actuals would reflect at the end of next year and therefore the figures they referred to in the analysis were the projections but not the actuals. This, of course, is the truth.
    So he seems to be completely lost in his own thinking on this matter for a very long time and needs to re-orientate himself. Because I called a meeting in my office and we sat down together with the Bank of Ghana and I explained to them the difference between projections in the Budget and actuals and that your actuals would even be up to October/ November when you are reading a budget in December. But he keeps on making it look like actuals are different from actuals. I do not really understand him.
    Mr. Bagbin 3:25 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, it is the
    Minister himself who stated that his actuals - the one he stated in the Budget as actuals were not actually actuals, that is what I am quoting - [Laughter] -- and Mr. Speaker, this is recorded - We are not talking about projections. He has no projections in the Budget this time. He is referring to actuals last year whereas we are talking about those actuals in respect to the GETFund. That is what we are talking about. And Mr. Speaker, let me go on. In 2004, we set ourselves to achieving five objectives. They are captured in the 2004 Budget and they are recaptured in the 2005 Budget.
    The first one was a real GDP growth rate of, at least, 5.2 per cent; the second, a commitment to bringing the twelve-month Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation rate down to under 10 per cent by the end of December, 2004; the third is maintaining our goal to build up the gross international reserves to not less than three months of imports cover; and the fourth, a domestic primary surplus of 1.7 per cent of GDP and the fifth, an overall Budget deficit
    equivalent to 1.7 per cent of GDP.
    Mr. Speaker, we achieved two out of the five and we are very happy and we are congratulating ourselves - two over five - [Laughter] - [Some hon. Members: Pass.] That is not a pass mark. Two over five, and we are congratulating ourselves for having done very well -[Laughter.]
    Mr. Osafo-Maafo 3:25 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, the
    point of order is that, in the case of NDC, within the West Africa Monetary Zone, they obtained zero out of four for four years -[Laughter] - and the 2000 Budget also obtained zero out of five and, indeed, the reasons why the two were not also made are very clear. Therefore I just want to -- zero out of five and two out of five -- they are very wide apart.
    Mr. Speaker 3:25 p.m.
    Hon. Minister, you are
    out of order.
    rose
    Mr. Speaker 3:25 p.m.
    Hon. Member, you have
    nothing to say; he is out of order; you have nothing to say. Hon. Member for Nabdam, you have nothing to say. I have ruled him out of order.
    Mr. Bagbin 3:25 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, he just drew
    our attention to a ten-year-old boy running one hundred metres and not getting the time stipulated for himself and then at the age of twenty, he decides to run and he gets it and he says “oh now, I have done very well”. That is not the measure. The time he talked about it was the initiation, the starting point and we have had more years now to make sure that we improve upon it. So that is not a good comparison. [Laughter.] We are talking about you setting targets now after so many years of stabilisation and now we are talking about growth. That is what I am referring to.
    Mr. Speaker, I said this for us to also recollect that when our hon. Friend, the Minister for Education and Sports came to this House, just a few minutes ago we raised a lot of hullabaloo about the TOR debt. He said that when they came they were not on top of the situation so they could not locate all. That was in the 2001 Budget. Then getting to the end of the year, he came back to this House with a Review, and I can quote his statement there again. At page 17, paragraph 47 of his Review, he presented it on the 8th November, 2001, it is stated clearly there. The sentence - I can read the whole paragraph but the relevant sentence is this:
    “it must be noted that the total stock of TOR's debt is estimated at ¢2.5 trillion.”
    Now we are told today that it is ¢4.4 trillion - [Some hon. Members: Ooooh!] Mr. Speaker, that was why I raised the earlier issue of actuals not being actuals. We have to be very careful of the figures we bandy around. Mr. Speaker, if you look at the 2004 Budget Statement - [Interruption.]
    Mr. Osei-Prempeh 3:25 p.m.
    On a point
    of order. Mr. Speaker, what the hon. Minority Leader is saying is interesting. When he rose on a point of order when I was speaking, he said that there was no TOR debt - [Uproar] -- That was the statement he made. He said there was no TOR debt and he referred to a document and said there was no TOR debt and he read the Statement of Account of TOR and said there was no debt; that was what he said. So now if he is saying there was a TOR debt of ¢2.3 trillion and he accepts it, Mr. Speaker, he must clarify that. Thank you.
    Mr. Bagbin 3:25 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, what I did was to challenge his figure and to say that in the report that I have, there is no such TOR debt of ¢4.5 trillion.
    Dr. Osei 3:25 p.m.
    On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, I think it would have been useful to the House if my Senior Brother had quoted completely the Minister for Education and Sports. He kept reminding us that even as we were discovering, there were some hidden in the accounts of Commercial Bank not in November, 2001, and if you go to the Bank of Ghana and look at their stock of debt, you will see that at two points in time, beyond November 2001, TOR bonds were issued as and when they were discovered. He mentioned, for example, the ¢800 billion in the Bank of Ghana account; he mentioned another one in the Commercial Bank. So I think he would have been helpful to all of us if he had continued and added that. That is where there is the difference between actuals and not being actuals. If it is hidden and the accountants are wrong, you have to continue to discover.
    Mr. Bagbin 3:25 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, he has
    confirmed that his actuals are not actuals. That is just what he has confirmed and tomorrow, they would be bringing a different figure to us again. That is dangerous.
    Dr. Osei 3:35 p.m.
    On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, I believe the Minister for Education and Sports corrected hon. Moses Asaga when he tried to equate Tema Oil Refinery debt of ¢800 billion with an overdrawn account of ¢900 billion. The two are different animals.
    Let me teach him The Governor of Bank of Ghana, Dr. Kwabena Dufuor tried to explain to us how the Government of Ghana overdrew its account in the district by ¢900 billion; that had nothing to do with the TOR stock of debts. So please, let us not equate apples with oranges.
    Mr. Bagbin 3:35 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, I agree that that is coming from the tradition of the elephant; there is the tendency to exaggerate -- [Laughter] -- so my hon. Colleague can go on. They are different animals -- they have the elephant and we have the umbrella. The elephant is an animal; the umbrella is not an animal -- [Uproar.]
    Mr. Owusu-Agyemang 3:35 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, on a point of order. Mr. Speaker, biologically, human beings are animals so we have feelings; they do not have any feelings because they are inanimate objects -- [Uproar.] We have feelings and they do not have any feelings. It is good to be an elephant rather than to be cold steel and plastic. So that is why we have all feelings for the people -- that was why I thought I should make this point.
    Mr. Speaker 3:35 p.m.
    Hon. Minister, that is not a point of order.
    rose
    Mr. Speaker 3:35 p.m.
    Hon. Minister for Communications, do you have another point of order?
    Mr. Kan-Dapaah 3:35 p.m.
    Yes, please. Mr. Speaker, I was wondering why the hon. Minority Leader read a sentence and quoted a figure of 2.5. I think it would have been useful if he had quoted the whole paragraph because I want to believe that, having played with these figures for a very long time, this is a new development to me. I think if he reads the whole
    paragraph, we would see whether he is not quoting out of context.
    Mr. Speaker 3:35 p.m.
    Hon. Minority Leader, I am sure that in due course, you will let him have sight of the publication that you have.
    Mr. Bagbin 3:35 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, I have no problem in reading the whole paragraph, I can even read the whole Budget for him; I can do that -- [Interruption.]
    Mr. Speaker 3:35 p.m.
    Minority Leader, I hope you will make it available to him. You may go on.
    Mr. Bagbin 3:35 p.m.
    Yes, Mr. Speaker, we were all given copies. I referred to the document and he could go there and there is the paragraph to read.
    Mr. Speaker 3:35 p.m.
    Hon. Minority Leader, I have ruled him out of order, what is the point in responding to it?
    Mr. Bagbin 3:35 p.m.
    It is just to remind him that no animal runs to the elephant for help when the lion is chasing it, for good reason -- [Laughter.] Mr. Speaker, we are calling on this House -- [Inter-ruption.]
    Ms. Theresa Tagoe 3:35 p.m.
    On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, I now understand why Ghanaians rejected the umbrella. In year 2000, they rejected them; in 2004 they booted them out because they do not breathe and they do not have feelings. The animal elephant has feelings and like the people -- [Interruptions.]
    Mr. Speaker 3:35 p.m.
    Hon. Member for Ablekuma South, that is not a point of order. Hon. Minority Leader, proceed.
    Mr. Bagbin 3:35 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, we are saying that there is the need to review the National Reconstruction Levy not just by reduction but by elimination. Mr. Speaker, we were all told in 2001 -- and the 2001 Budget is here -- page 84, paragraph 401, that the intention of Government was to impose a National Reconstruction Levy between the period of 2000 and 2002. And Mr. Speaker, but for lack of time, I would have read through the paragraph for my hon. Colleagues; it is there. Mr. Speaker, the good people of Ghana, even at 2002 decided to allow it to be extended to 2004.
    Mr. Speaker, at the end of 2004, our hon. Colleagues in Government them- selves realized the disastrous nature of imposing higher taxation because we saw it in the forestry industry -- they have referred to it in the Budget Statement -- and how it caused distress and collapsed companies and there were labour lay-offs; it is all in this Budget.
    So Mr. Speaker, the imposition of taxation above some percentage causes a lot of hardship not only to the people but also to industry and, in fact, sometimes reduces revenue generation. And that is why we, after reading this Budget, feel that it is now prudent for the Government to do away with the National Reconstruction Levy in order to release funds for industry to grow.
    Mr. Speaker, we are saying this from a very informed position from industry and I think that our good friends in Government should not only be looking at the issue of raising revenue but they should be also looking at the issue of allowing those industries and individuals to use their moneys.
    Mrs. Elizabeth Sackey 3:35 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, on a point of order. Mr. Speaker, if I did hear the hon. Member clearly I should think that he is yearning for our kisses and we would do likewise to him if he should ask for. But he should not be jealous of what we did to the hon. Minister. [Interruptions.]
    Mr. Speaker 3:35 p.m.
    Minority Leader, I hope
    you are winding up now?
    Mr. Bagbin 3:45 p.m.
    Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
    Mrs. Baiden-Amissah 3:45 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker,
    Mr. Speaker 3:45 p.m.
    For purposes of good order, hon. Minority Leader, you may forget about that word .
    Mr. Bagbin 3:45 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, I have received a lot of them from the hon. Member who just spoke for four good years. Your predecessor is aware that she gave me a lot for four good years -- [Uproar] -- Mr. Speaker, I now do not need more.
    rose
    Mr. Speaker 3:45 p.m.
    Hon. Member for
    Shama, do you have a point of order?
    Mrs. Baiden-Amissah 3:45 p.m.
    Yes, Mr.
    Speaker. Mr. Speaker, he said he has enjoyed my kisses for four years; we are in the fifth year so he needs more -- because he is yearning for more kisses, he is jealous of the kisses we gave to the hon. Minister for Finance and Economic Planning. He

    should cross and come here I will give him more.
    Mr. Bagbin 3:45 p.m.
    In winding up, Mr.
    Speaker, we are simply trying to refine the Budget Statement that was read in this House and I like the way the debate went on in this House. That is why, Mr. Speaker, you are aware I should not have even been around here but I decided to come and be part of this rather healthy debate on the Budget Statement.
    Mr. Speaker, we believe that the good people of Ghana would benefit better if the concerns we raised in our amendment motion are incorporated into the Budget Statement for this year. Mr. Speaker, we believe strongly that Government should review the Budget Statement, incorporate these concerns and make sure that we together would now own the Budget as they are claiming. They should not hold on to what is stated a number of times in the Budget that it is an NPP Budget, and then at the end of the day, they try to claim that it is for the whole nation.
    We want it to be nationalistic. We want it to be for all of us and that is the time that we can all put our hands on deck to make sure we implement the Budget Statement that is made by all of us; and it is not hard to do. We simply say, yes, they intend generating over hundred per cent revenue through petroleum taxes, but they should reduce it, if anything at all, to about eighty per cent. This is not too much to ask for.
    Mr. Speaker, we are saying that some of their measures would collapse industry; they should let industry survive; it is not too much to ask for. We are saying we are producing a lot of labour, there is problem of unemployment. Some of the measures they want to implement are such that they will worsen the situation, and therefore they should look at them again.
    Mr. Speaker, I think this is all our

    With this, Mr. Speaker, I support the amendment motion. Thank you very much Mr. Speaker.
    Mr. Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu 3:45 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, by referring to page 300, paragraph 1067 of the Budget Statement, it shows that we have achieved our objective as a House. Mr. Speaker, this is what I read out -- we are capable of doing it and that means, we are capable of arguing out and coming to a consensus. Mr. Speaker, I said “let us against the background of noble traits combine the fire of our minds” which I have seen here “with that of the perseverance of our hearts” which we have seen over the past two weeks “and then the skills of our limbs to make sure we implement this Budget” for which I have seen we have all contributed.
    I would like to move that we actually approve the substantive motion in the sense that for the corporate entity alone, not less than thirteen provisions have been made to improve upon the system. Paragraph 953 talks about the corporate tax, which we have actually worked on -- the reduction over the next two years, the withholding tax, and the National Reconstruction Levy, which we have actually talked about.
    Mr. Speaker, this is Daily Graphic of Monday, February 28; it contains the published accounts of the Enterprise Insurance Company Limited; Mr. Speaker, on page 6, for the year 2004, they made a profit before tax of ¢10.2 billion and the
    Mr. Moses Asaga 3:55 p.m.
    On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, the Minister for Finance and Economic Planning in winding up, I thought he would be very, very objective in totality. We are talking of an economy, that is industry, agriculture and service sectors. These are the three categories of that economy. He picks only the figures for only one sector which is the financial sector; meanwhile industry has sent us reports that this National Reconstruction Levy is hurting them.
    He should touch on the PZs, he should touch on the Johnson Waxes and Unilevers and then give us an idea as to how they are performing. How do you bring in Cal Bank and Enterprise Insurance? This is exactly what we are saying that the services sector and agriculture have been pulling us. Let us go into manufacturing
    Mr. Speaker 3:55 p.m.
    Order! Order! Hon. Minister, please proceed; that is not a point of order.
    Mr. Baah-Wiredu 3:55 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, I am giving facts, as I am presenting the issues. He had the option to also do the same. I am throwing him a challenge to come out; we will go through the public accounts of all the sectors he is talking about -- agriculture, industry and services -- and then we shall analyse and see whether after all, the National Reconstruction Levy has been of benefit to us or not. I am prepared to do that. Mr. Speaker, the National Reconstruction Levy, in the long-run, is not bad at all. We need to look at that. There is this policy as per paragraph 962 to make sure that -- [Interruption.]
    Mr. Abuga 3:55 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, the hon. Minister by just quoting the National Reconstruction Levy alone as the tax element of that company, is misleading the House. Mr. Speaker, he is misleading the House because the tax of the company is not just the Reconstruction Levy alone. We have their income tax, we have other taxes so if he just picks one aspect and says that is a minute portion of their tax burden and leaves out the others, you still would not know the dimension of the tax burden facing that particular company.
    Mr. Baah-Wiredu 3:55 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, I know how to calculate that, and even where they make a profit, before tax, of ¢10 billion at least after taking everything, they have about ¢7 billion outstanding. Mr. Speaker, I think the Budget has run through a whole lot of issues which are supposed to give hope.
    For example, paragraph 971 talks about the problem of high lending rates which the Government and the Bank of Ghana and the banks obviously are looking at,
    in order to resolve it. This is basically to translate them into corporate entities to make money available for us to invest to support private sector development which we have been harping on.
    So Mr. Speaker, I like the idea of the venture capital which we are introducing to support a lot of other corporate entities in the system. All these measures have been taken along to make sure that our corporate entities actually benefit. The Central Security Deposit System of the Bank of the Ghana is to assure every investor that we would move ahead. Our nation will obviously develop if we have such systems in the whole process, and we have done a lot to make sure that we actually benefit.
    Mr. Speaker, taking individuals into consideration, I think Members have run through the personal tax and other things that we have introduced. Mr. Speaker, in the year 2000, the minimum wage was about ¢2,900 as against an exchange rate of ¢7,000 and that translated to about 0.4 of a dollar. When in 2004, it was ¢11,200 with even an exchange rate of ¢9,100 we had $1.23. And now that we have moved to ¢13,500, that means that we have about 1.48 of a dollar.
    So obviously, we are not saying that we completed everything, but we are gradually moving to where we want to be, and as the economy is expanding and we are working through it, with security of everybody well catered for, obviously we will be making progress.
    Mr. Speaker, there is a lot that we have talked about, with regard to a special transportation scheme. Recently, in Koforidua, when the commercial operators refused to operate, the buses went there and it reduced the burden that
    Mr. Asaga 3:55 p.m.
    On a point of order. Mr. Speaker, again, the hon. Minister in talking of a minimum wage over one dollar refused to also mention that in 1996 and 1999, and I am quoting, it was more than 1 dollar -- [Interruption] -- yes, I have the figures here; it was. Let me quote. In 1996, the forex exchange rate was ¢1,637 for a dollar; minimum wage was ¢1,700; that was more than a dollar. In 1999, the forex exchange was ¢2,647; minimum wage was ¢2,900 and I am rather surprised -- [Interruption.]
    Mr. Speaker 3:55 p.m.
    Hon. Member for Nabdam, are you contributing or you are raising a point of order?
    Mr. Asaga 3:55 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, I am correcting him on the figures. So there was minimum wage over a dollar. He should give all the figures rather than make it look like it is a mystery to now get over the dollar mark; and this is from the Centre for Policy Analysis (CEPA) where Dr. Osei used to work.
    Dr. Osei 3:55 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, he has just misled the House. There is no Dr. Akoto who used to work at Centre for Policy Analysis (CEPA). Last time, I reminded my hon. Colleague, there is a Dr. Akoto Osei; so he can withdraw.
    Mr. Baah-Wiredu 3:55 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, I have here the minimum wage from 1963 to date. If the hon. Member wants to debate, the data is here and I am prepared to take him on at the appropriate time. Mr. Speaker, with regard to the individual, I think the Government has put in place a lot of schemes to reduce the burden that we have all been talking about.
    Mr. Speaker, as you are aware, we started the upgrading of senior secondary
    Mr. Speaker, this is what it says 3:55 p.m.
    “Oil leaps -- as OPEC hints $80 per barrel is on the way.”
    Mr. A. S. K. Bagbin 4:05 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, my good Friend is misleading the House. This was what he himself said in the year 2000 -- Official Report of 18th February 2000, columns 1919 to 1920, and with your permission I quote him:
    “Mr. Speaker, by increasing the road levy and the price of fuel by 53 per cent, they are already increasing the price of fuel and that is going to increase the burden of the people of Ghana.”
    That is the Minister who is now speaking:
    “So if we are to increase the VAT by 2.5 per cent then obviously we are not helping the people of Ghana.”
    Mr. Speaker, at that time he did not know Government could prepare for the future.
    Today, he has talked about the Government imposing taxes because he is anticipating that crude oil prices could rise to $80. We are saying that by the time we reach there the people would be dead; they will not be there for you to work for.
    Mr. Speaker 4:05 p.m.
    Minority Leader, this
    is not a point of order, let him proceed.
    Mr. Baah-Wiredu 4:05 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, on
    Mr. Speaker 4:05 p.m.
    Order!
    Mr. Baah-Wiredu 4:05 p.m.
    So Mr. Speaker,
    I have given the pages, pages 76 and 77, that is the basis of mismanagement.
    Mr. Speaker, I think we have done a
    lot, especially with regard to this Budget which we have presented. We have taken note of all the points that have been raised by our hon. Colleagues, both at the left and the right; and in the implementation of this particular Budget which is anchored on Financial Administration Regulations, section 180 which calls for quarterly budget reports, I think the Government has taken note and a lot of proposals have been put in place. I believe that we are really going to achieve our desired results.
    Mr. Speaker 4:05 p.m.
    Hon. Members, we
    have a motion and we have an amendment thereto. The motion is that this honourable House approves the Financial Policy of the Government for the year ending 31st December, 2005.
    And there is this amendment, That
    this: honourable House takes note of the Financial Policy of the Government for the Financial Year ending 31st December, 2005 and regrets that the Financial Policy fails to address urgent economic problems of the country such as:
    i. The intolerable hardships faced by the ordinary Ghanaian as a result of the increase in prices of petroleum products;
    ii. The high rate of unemployment, especially of the youth;
    iii. The continued charging of the
    National Reconstruction Levy and the introduction of other new taxes;
    iv. The high cost of education, especially from secondary school level upwards;
    and calls upon the Government to review the 2005 Financial Policy.
    We shall therefore take the amendment first.
    Question put and the House was counted:
    AYES -- 80
    NOES -- 107
    Amendment negatived.
    Mr. Speaker 4:15 p.m.
    Hon. Members, the amendment is defeated. And there is this motion on the floor that this honourable House approves the Financial Policy of the Government for the year ending 31st December 2005.
    Question put and motion agreed to.
    Resolved accordingly.
    PAPERS 4:15 p.m.

    Mr. Freddie Blay 4:15 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, I crave your indulgence that you do inform members of our Committee that immediately after we have risen from here, we shall have a sitting to continue with our public hearing.
    Mr. Speaker 4:15 p.m.
    Leadership, any
    indication at this stage?
    Mr. A. O. Aidooh 4:15 p.m.
    Mr. Speaker, I think you may now adjourn the House.
    ADJOURNMENT 4:15 p.m.

  • The House was adjourned at 4.17 p.m. till 10th March, 2005 at 10.00 a.m.