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Information available to peacefmonline.com indicates that the Minority Members in Parliament have refused to allow Finance Minister, Seth Terkper to present the budget review to parliament.

The Minister of Finance , Mr Seth Terkper, was to present a fiscal statement to Parliament today.

The statement has become necessary partly because of the dramatic fall in the price of crude oil on the international market and government's deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The government, last year, budgeted with a crude oil price of $99 a barrel, which was expected to bring in about $2 billion to help it meet its revenue target of GH¢3,453 million.

The fall in the oil price means that the government is going to suffer a revenue shortfall of nearly $700 million, as against estimates in the 2015 Budget Statement, which was presented in Parliament in November 2014.

Financial Analysts say government’s agreement with the IMF encompasses certain recommendations some of which are likely to feature in the revised budget.

The finance minister was thus expected to announce some serious cuts in the government’s initial plan to spend some GH¢4,544 million this year.

However, the minority in Parliament claims the presentation of the budget was not part of the agenda on the order paper. 

The Minority suspect the Finance Minister will review an entirely new budget which MPs will be required to pass and alleged government is reviewing the budget with the view of ensuring that it is not in “variance with their negotiations with the IMF.”

But Majority Leader, Alban Bagbin described such claims as ‘misleading’. He explained that the Minority were “misled by the last business committee report which programmed the Minister to come a do a budget review”

“On that basis the minority picked up the issue but that is not what the Minister is coming to do...the Minister will just make a statement on the floor of Parliament, about the implications on the 2015 budget of the fall of oil prices” as well as “brief Ghanaians on the final performance of the 2015 budget,” he clarified to the press during recess.

Speaker of the house, Hon. Edward Doe Adjaho then ruled in favour of the Majority after its leader, Alban Bagbin asked to vary the order of business, saying the Majority had decided to allow the Finance Minister to make a statement instead of moving a motion for the adoption of a review budget.

But the Minority were not happy with the sudden change in the agenda and raised a ruckus over the ruling believing Seth Terkper will review the budget, hence their opposition.

Even though the Majority leader pleaded with the minority to sit and listen to what the Finance Minister had to say, they (Minority) insisted that they had no prior notice; hence they will not listen.

This however generated into a hot debate followed by heckling from the Minority members of parliament which prompted the Speaker to threaten to walk out any member who misbehaved, but that was not enough to get them to quieten down.  

Hon. Doe Adjaho has therefore suspended sitting for a 30 minute recess and having a closed door meeting with the leadership of the House.

Precedence

The Speaker revealed that he held a meeting with his procedural clerks to find out whether there was precedence to follow after he was informed about the Finance Minister’s intentions. “I was very clear in my mind that as the Speaker I have precedence to guide me and to follow,” he stated.