Ghana’s former Finance Minister, Seth Terkper, is advising the government to prioritise responsible debt management and explore alternative funding sources beyond short-term treasury bills.
According to him, the country stands in danger by relying largely on T-bills for financing.
He made these remarks during a media dialogue on Ghana’s International Monetray Fund programme.
We cannot sustain the economy on treasury bills because treasury bills are for three months. So, at the end of the three months, we must pay”.
“Inadvertently, we are increasing the public debt because we do not have a payment mechanism since the sinking fund is no more.”
He further cautioned the government on the ramifications of not including the nation’s arrears as part of the total debt stock.
The fact that we are doing well may not mean if our primary balance were good at indicating that we were doing well. I can assure you that we would have settled our domestic debt and would have started issuing three-year bonds.”
He added that” the tendency to leave out arrears has hurt us before, and we should be very mindful it doesn’t hurt us again.”
Abolish E-Levy
Terkper advocated for the abolition of the Electronic Transaction Levy, citing its failure to achieve its intended goals.
He expressed greater support for the implementation of a digitalised tax system by the Ghana Revenue Authority, believing it would improve efficiency and boost domestic revenue collection.
The media dialogue, organised by PFM Tax Africa Network, served as a platform for open discussion on national economic issues with media professionals and experts.