Accra, Aug. 28, GNA - Government on Thursday said it is using the HIPC Funds as start up capital for the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).

Briefing Journalists at the weekly press briefing in Accra, Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, said government cannot use benefits under the HIPC funds for the NHIS because it is not sustainable.

Mr Osafo-Maafo was explaining the rational behind the NHIS and its implications.

Mr Osafo-Maafo explained that the HIPC status would not be a permanent feature in the nation's programmes and, "we must not by any means go ahead to rely on unsustainable means of footing such an important scheme for national development".

He noted that the argument by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) was not only flawed but also based on an incomplete rating of the entire scheme.

"The National Health Insurance Scheme must be regular, reliable and must have the ability to grow, and the reliance on HIPC cannot do that, " Mr Osafo-Maafo said.

He denied that the two and a half per cent deduction was by implication an increase in the Value Added Tax. "It is a dangerous assertion and misinformation of the public by the NDC."

He denied the NDC's claim that the increase in petroleum prices was at the bidding of the IMF and said, "the increase was meant to achieve full price recovery and not to please the whims of the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund".

Mr Osafo-Maafo said the NDC was fond of using draft documents of the discussions and transactions between the Bretton Woods Institution and government, adding, " I will be glad if they also use my draft papers too. But more importantly I wish they use the final documents".