The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta has said that the country’s domestic revenue failed to meet its projected 11.2% GDP target for 2022.
According to him, domestic revenue was targeted at GH¢66,503 million (11.2 percent of GDP) but fell short by 2.9 percent.
Actual “domestic revenue for the period amounted to GH¢64,601 million (10.9 percent of GDP)”, he told Parliament.
He made this revelation while presenting the 2023 Budget on the floor of Parliament on Thursday.
Mr Ofori-Atta stated that although the domestic revenue did not meet its projected target, “the outturn however, represents a year-on-year growth of 34.0 percent and constituted 98.8 percent of Total Revenue and Grants.”
He added that the total revenue and grants which amounted to GH¢65,399 million (11.0 percent of GDP), represents a shortfall of 2.8 percent compared to the target for the period and year-on-year growth of 33.2 percent.
“Mr. Speaker, Total Revenue and Grants amounted to GH¢65,399 million (11.0 percent of GDP), compared with a target of GH¢67,307 (11.4 percent of GDP) and the GH¢49,108 million (10.7 percent of GDP) recorded in the corresponding period in 2021.”
He explained that the shortfall in revenue stemmed from the less robust performance recorded in all the revenue handles for the period.
Touching on expenditure performance, the Finance Minister said the total expenditure for the period exceeded its target of GH¢103,992 million (17.6 percent of GDP) by 5.2 percent.
“Mr. Speaker, Total Expenditure (including arrears clearance and discrepancy) for the period amounted to GH¢109,421 million (18.5 percent of GDP),” he said.
He further noted that the compensation of employees amounted to “GH¢27,146 million (4.6 percent of GDP), 2.9 percent below the budgetary provision of GH¢27,947 million (4.7 percent of GDP).”
He also stated that the wage bill constituted 91.3 percent of the total Compensation and amounted to GH¢24,734 million.
