Minister of Finance, Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson
In the lead up to the 2024 elections, then candidate John Dramani Mahama of the National Democratic Congress embarked on arguably one of the most issued based political campaigns since 1992.
The NDC flagbearer was precise and concise in delivering his message. He promised to abolish taxes the NDC believed were unnecessary but detrimental to the general living condition of the ordinary citizen.
Consequently, the NDC won the elections “decisively” as stated by the then Vice President and the presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Dr. Muhamadu Bawumia.
In view of the scale of the victory and the confidence reposed in President John Dramani Mahama, Ghanaians are anticipating nothing but a fulfilment of the promises the NDC made.
The government’s Minister of Finance Dr. Cassiel Atto Forson has presented the government’s budget for the year 2025 to 2025. This articles seeks to analyse the content of the budget in relation to the promises to ascertain whether the budget inspires hope or not.
The Promises:
The NDC promised to scrap the numerous taxes such as the controversial E-Levy, betting tax, emission levy on industries and vehicles, Covid-19 levy, VAT on motor vehicle insurance and tax on unprocessed gold by small-scale miners.
The NDC also promised to introduced Free first year tuition fee for tertiary education, introduce a 24-Hour economy to address the unemployment challenges, stabilise the local currency, introduce the Big Push programme among others. These were all captured in the NDC’s manifesto for the 2024 election.
Then candidate Mahama took his time and explained the importance of scrapping these taxes and the NDC’s policies will help in resetting the country to the Ghana we all want.
The Budget:
Whiles presenting the 2025-2026 budget statement to the parliament, the finance minister Dr. Cassiel Atto Forson announced that, government has abolished the 1% E-Levy, the 10% Batting tax, the 1.5% withholding tax on unprocessed gold by small-scale miners, the COVID-19 levy, emission levy on industries and vehicles and the VAT on motor vehicle insurance, all in fulfilment of the campaign promises towards building a Ghana we all want.
He also announced that, the government have allocated GHC 13.85 billion for the implementation of the Big Push Programme, the government will also eliminate academic fees for first year tertiary students starting from September 2025, free tertiary education for all People With Disability (PWD).
The government has also allocated funding for the delivery of “Mahama Cares Programme” to finance the treatment of non-communicable diseases. The government is also committed to delivering the much anticipated 24-Hour economy, the finance minister added in his budget presentation.
