General News of Wednesday, 1 November 2023

Source: GNA

Parliament proposes November 15 for 2024 Budget presentation

Ken Ofori-Atta, Finance Minister, before parliament Ken Ofori-Atta, Finance Minister, before parliament

Parliament has proposed November 15 for the presentation of the 2024 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the Government.

Speaker Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin Tuesday said in a few days, the House would host the Minister of Finance, Mr Ken Ofori Atta, to present the Budget Statement for the 2024 fiscal year.

“As our oversight responsibility requires, we will have to scrutinise the budget to ensure that it serves the needs of all Ghanaians,” he said in his welcome remarks during the First Sitting of the Third Meeting of the Third Session of the Eighth Parliament of the Fourth Republic.

“I believe this House will adopt a consultative and consensus building approach throughout this process,” he said.

Speaker Bagbin said the House had demonstrated enough capacity and experience in budget approval deliberations and the current one would be no difference.

“But we urgently need to pass the Budget Bill before the House to enable us to engage more technical personnel to put Parliament in good stead to comply with the imperatives of recent legislations passed,” the Speaker said.

There are other urgent businesses Parliament has to deal with, including the Affirmative Action (Gender Equality) Bill, 2023, and Social Protection Bill, Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (Amendment) Bill.

Others are Instruments such as Representation of the People (Parliamentary Constituencies) (Amendments) Instrument, 2023, District Electoral Areas and Designation of Units (Amendments) Regulations, 2023, and Ghana Enterprises Agency (Classification of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) Regulations 2023.

The rest are Tree Crop Regulation 2023, Chartered Institute of Human Resources Management, Ghana Regulations, and the Companies Regulations 2023.