Parliament has approved the Appropriations Bill for the 2023 fiscal year.
The bill captures all estimates of government’s planned expenditure for the ensuing year.
The government intends to spend an amount of GH¢227 billion with GHS¢800 million from the Consolidated Fund and other public funds for 2023.
Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin led the house to approve the Bill. “The Appropriation Bill 2022 is duly read the third time and passed”, he said.
Meanwhile, the house has adjourned sine die for the Christmas festivities.
Before the House rose, it approved the 2.5 percent Value Added Tax increase proposed by the government effective 2023.
Ghanaians will thus pay more for goods and services in the ensuing year.
Despite the Minority’s opposition to the move, the House approved the motion after a head count offered the Majority 136 votes against the Minority’s 135 votes.
The Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu said such approval would only worsen the economic hardship.
Among other happenings was the approval of an amount of GH¢129 million for the services of the Office of the Special Prosecutor for the year 2023.
This follows an official communication to the house by the Special Prosecutor that the Finance Ministry has assured of payment of its 16 months salary arrears by Friday, December 23, 2022.
Parliament suspended the budgetary allocation to the Office of the Special Prosecutor after the Minority raised concerns about the non-payment of the salary of the Special Prosecutor since he assumed office.
It also put on hold the approval of over GH¢2 billion budget estimates for the services of the Finance Ministry for the year 2023.
This was after the Minority raised concerns about the GH¢1 billion allocation for the Finance Ministry for resource mobilisation.
The group said it cannot support its approval until the Ministry provides the needed details on the essence of the allocation for resource mobilisation.