...rejects bid for revised budget

Moses Asaga, Minority Spokesman on Finance on Tuesday described as "positive and welcoming news" the recent initiatives launched by the government to promote the production and export of cassava and garment products to create jobs and boost the country's earnings.

He, however, said the Minister of Finance's decision to re-appear before parliament with a revised budget was irrelevant and pointless because there was no basis or justification for such an action.

Asaga was speaking in a telephone interview with Sky FM radio of Sunyani from Accra on a number of topical economic issues.

He said the cassava and the garment initiatives though laudable would not yield the expected dividend if the necessary infrastructure were not put in place.

"This country has always had brilliant policies and programmes but their effective implementation is what has been our bane because most of the time, we fail to create the right atmosphere for their optimum actualisation".

He said without a substantial increase in the production base of raw materials and expansion and construction of new plants and facilities the initiatives were bound to fail.

On the budget Asaga said Parliament would not resume sitting until about October when the Minister of Finance should be busy preparing next year's budget instead of thinking of appearing before the house again with "a so-called revised budget".

On the decision to outlaw private participation in lottery, he said this was long overdue. "I have since 1998 been spearheading efforts to rationalise the lotto industry since opening it up for private participation has weakened the sector's contribution to national revenue".

The government should have given him the credit for "my pioneering effort to sanitise the industry", he said.

Asaga said banning banker-to- banker operations would not create mass unemployment because the majority of their workers were in the distribution and sale of lotto tickets and coupons and they could be maintained to do the same job when the Department of National Lotteries takes over the industry.

He said the government's prediction of four per cent growth rate of the economy and foreign reserve ratios would not be achieved because the economic performance has been sluggish.

"Ghana is still a high cost production centre in West Africa as a result of its high rates of taxation, cost of utilities and bank rates all of which are impacting negatively on the performance of industries and businesses".