Social Commentator, Bernard Allotey Jacobs has challenged the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to end their negative criticism of the 2021 budget presented by the ruling government.
On his accord, the opposition in any serious democracy would have presented an alternative budget to what was presented by the government and not make media rounds to just criticize it.
Speaking in an interview with Don Kwabena Peprah on Happy98.9FM’s Epa Hoa Daben political talk show, Allotey Jacobs said, “What the opposition needs to do after every budget presentation is to present an alternative one and not go about screaming. The NDC has no alternative budget.
The NDC is just screaming for the gaming and COVID-19 taxes to be removed. But have they presented alternatives to this? The NDC does not need to criticize the government for the sake of criticism but they should present an alternative budget and say this is how we can do it better”.
He noted that the inability of the NDC to present an alternative budget proves his assertion that the party has no one to match the prowess of Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia. “And that is why they must forget about winning the election”.
Allotey Jacobs applauded the government for its presentation of the budget and only faulted them on their mode of communication on such matters. “The problem with the NPP is that information and clarity of their budget gets stuck at the middle class but they do not explain it to the ordinary Ghanaian down there”.
Leading members of the NDC have criticized the budget presented by the caretaker Finance Minister on Friday, March 12, 2021. The opposition claims the budget only seeks to make the lives of Ghanaians worse off.
The government is seeking to introduce four new levies and increase other existing ones this year.
Some of the levies in question are the COVID-19 health levy, Petroleum levy, Sanitation, and Pollution levy as well as the financial sector clean up levy.
By: Joel Sanco
