General News of Thursday, 25 October 2018

Source: ghananewsagency.org

Fiscal Responsibility Law to be passed soon - Bawumia

Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia

Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has re-affirmed Government's commitment to safeguard the macro-economic gains it had made over the past 21 months is not eroded.

To that end, he said the Fiscal Responsibility Law was expected to be passed by the end of the year to cap the budget deficit in order not to exceed five per cent of the budget in every fiscal year.

He added the Government was setting up regulatory and advisory bodies to guide government’s fiscal and financial sector management.

Vice President Bawumia said this when he addressed the Ghana Investment and Opportunity Summit in London, UK, on Tuesday.

The two-day Summit is being organised by the Ghana High Commission in the UK, in collaboration with the Ghana Investments Promotion Centre (GIPC).

The Vice President said government being cognizant of the tendency to backtrack on the progress made so far, it was putting in place measures to ensure the irreversibility of the gains achieved.

"We are implementing structural measures to tackle some of the long-term structural issues.

We intend to urge Parliament to pass a Fiscal Responsibility law by the end of this year to cap the budget deficit not to exceed five per cent for a fiscal year," he stated.

Dr Bawumia said government would roll out complementary fiscal and financial sector management and establish institutional safeguards such as independent Financial Stability Council, Fiscal Council, and an International Economic Advisory Council to enforce the law.

Vice President Bawumia said those institutions would safeguard the financial system, deepen financial intermediation, widen financial inclusion, and position Ghana as a West Africa Financial hub and economy with greater policy credibility.