A former Deputy Finance Minister under the past Mahama led administration, Ato Forson has described named government’s ‘Asempa Budget’ as ‘Asembone Budget’.

The Minority’s spokesperson on Finance said this when the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta appeared before the House to present the Mid-year budget review.

According to Mr. Forson government has failed to achieve its revenue targets.

“Government has failed to achieve its revenue targets. We are cutting down on the budget for goods and services by GhC 600 million. We are paying people but they don’t have the resources to work with. The budget is being revised from Asempa budget to Asemb?ne budget.

“The expectation was that from q1 to q2 the outturn will be 2.7 billion but the outturn is 2.1 billion which is another cut.

What this means is that there is a shortfall of almost 600 million. Put the two together. Tax revenue and non tax revenue. The shortfall so far is GHC 2. 7 billion,” Ato Forson said.

In his view, the Minister only presented “cosmetic figures” in Parliament to hoodwink Ghanaians. “The numbers that we are seeing here are cosmetic.

Government is accumulating arrears and failing to pay contractors. This is artificially compressed.”