By Clifford Okyere
Civil Society Organisations have devised and presented to the Ministry of Finance collated strategic inputs to be considered for the 2024 budget, which will be read by the sector Minister Ken Ofori-Atta before parliament on November 15, 2023.
In a press forum to share more insight with the media, the CSOs described the measures developed as future-proven and solution-oriented prepositions that, incorporated into the 2024 budget, will chart a new path for development in the country and salvage the economy from further decline.
The collated inputs by the Civil Society Organisations for the 2024 budget cover five thematic areas, which include macro-fiscal, which are the revenue expenditures to be considered for the budget; extraction and energy; health and education; governance and anti-corruption; and agriculture.
These thematic areas capture prudent fiscal policies and actions, which is expected to promote growth and development in the key sectors of the economy. Some fiscal policies captured under the thematic areas include the following
MACRO FISCAL
The CSOs called for its inclusion in the 2024 budget under Macro Fiscal, the increase of E-commence Tax from 3% to 6%, the doubling of property tax, high net worth taxation, the taxing of professional bodies, the establishment of an independent fiscal council, and the scrapping of the COVID-19 levy.
GOVERNANCE AND ANTI CORRUPTION
The CSOs urged the government to consider in its budget the need to strengthen anti-corruption institutions, ensuring public procurement reform, funding for audit institutions, and implementing measures of asset declaration and verification.
In agriculture, the CSOs want the government to consider the need to invest 10% of the IMF Extended Credit Facility in the agriculture sector.
In education and health, the CSOs want an increase in the capitation grant to 60 million cedis, increase in school feeding allocation per unit from 1.2 cedis to 3 cedis, clearance of the ICG arrears, and the development of a health contingency plan for the future.
In the energy sector, the CSOs want government to ensure the need to measure and report on tariff adjustment effectiveness in the power sector.