The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has appealed to individual bondholders to support the Domestic Debt Exchange programme.
On December 5, 2022, the Government of Ghana announced the voluntary Domestic Debt Exchange Program as a debt sustainability measure to exchange about GHS137 billion worth of Government bonds, E.S.L.A. Plc bonds and Daakye Trust Plc bonds, for a package of twelve new bonds, which are currently being issued.
Since the day of the announcement, there have been a lot of press releases and press conferences from individual bondholders, pensioners bondholders forum, and the National Democratic Party, among others how the programme will affect their livelihood.
Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday in Accra, NPP Director of Communication, Richard Ahiagbah said, the Debt Exchange Programme is an invitation by the government for eligible bondholders to participate in a bond swap voluntarily. The Programme allows the government to extend the maturity of bonds and lower the average coupon rates to create fiscal space to bring the debt-to-GDP ratio to the stated 55% by 2028.
“The government has acknowledged the difficulties of this inevitable debt operation to bring our debt to sustainable levels. This acknowledgement is reflected in the willingness of the government to engage and accommodate the proposals that have come from the various stakeholders. In addition, the government targets aggressive fiscal consolidation and enhanced revenue measures to ensure that the economy stabilizes quickly,” he stated.
Highlighting the party’s plans to insulate the economy against future exogenous shocks and pressure, Richard Ahiagbah said the government is working on several fiscal measures to strengthen the economy.
1. Domiciliation Policy: To boost our forex reserves, the Ministry of finance is working assiduously with the leadership of parliament to carve a domiciliation policy which will compel extractive companies to repatriate all forex earned from the sale of natural resources on the global commodity markets to the country. Nigeria has done it under its Local Content Development and Monitoring Board
2. Pass the tax exemption bill into law
3. Review the free zones area policy to plug leakages and abuses
4. Plug revenue leakages, especially within the extractive sector, focusing on the misdescription and underreporting of imports
5. Securing our borders to forestall the smuggling of taxable goods
6. Deepening ongoing digitalization efforts
7. Enhance Domestic revenue mobilization by increasing efficiency in tax collection i.e.eliminate human interface in tax collection
8. Strengthen the enforcement and monitoring regime of E-commerce, betting and gaming
9. Address off-budget expenditures by making sure all government expenditures go through GIFMIS
10. Enforce commitment controls within the various ministries, i.e., eliminate unauthorized expenditure as well as ensure that MDAs do not sign contracts without an approved budget
11. And finally, establish inter-sectorial working groups to address cross-cutting issues; review contracts and ensure standard reporting among ministries.
He, therefore, urged Ghanaians to continue to have faith in the current Nana Akufo Addo-led government to do justice to the current economic crisis.
Source: Modern Ghana
