Accra, May 26, GNA - The Deputy Minister of Finance, Mr Kweku Agyemang Manu on Thursday reiterated the determination of Government to keep the lid on its spending within the targets set in the budget in spite of the pressures of an election year.

He said it was important that the Government stuck to a tight fiscal policy so as not to jeopardise the economic gains chalked over the years.

Mr Manu was speaking when the Produce Buying Company (PBC) presented a cheque for 4.81 billion cedis as Government's dividend for 2003. The Deputy Minister said while consolidating economic gains it was critical that the Government mobilised enough revenue to keep development programmes on track.

It was in this direction that the Government was looking at all sources of potential revenue to improve the national purse. Mr Manu praised the Board of PBC for their ability to turn out such an "impressive result".

Nana Aye Kusi, Board Chairman of PBC, said the Board and Management through effective planning had turned the fortunes of the Company from a loss of 13.438 billion cedis to a surplus of 27.061 billion cedis. The Company had also purchased over 200,000 tonnes of cocoa in the ongoing Main Crop Season.

He said the Company would build on the modest achievement to enable it to pay higher dividend to the Government this year.