Wa, Feb. 13, GNA - Mr Andrew Awuni, deputy Minister of Information has said the government's projected revenue of 17 trillion cedis as outlined in the 2004 budget would be met despite the tax holidays the statement offered.

He said this was evident by the sustainable yearly rise in government revenue since the New Patriotic Party (NPP) came to power. Mr Awuni said under the 2001 budget, the government realised a revenue of 6.5 trillion cedis, showing an improvement over the 2000 budget, which brought in 4.4 trillion cedis in revenue.

He said under the 2002 budget, a revenue of 8.5 trillion cedis was collected, exceeding what was projected while 13.7 trillion cedis was raked in 2003.

Mr Awuni said the sustainable improvement in revenue generation was due to the plugging of loopholes in the revenue gathering mechanism. He appealed to the people to take advantage of the tax relief to expand their business.

Mr Awuni said 2.4 billion dollars would be made available to Ghana over the next 20 years at the HIPC conclusion point.

Mr Kweku Agyemang Manu, deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning said Ghana was able to access about 97 percent of pledges made under the HIPC initiative because of the confidence the donors had in country's economic performance.