The Minister of Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, has outlined some reforms the government is embarking on to ensure the economy returns to stable levels.

According to him major sectors of the economy like the energy and cocoa sectors will under some major reforms to reduce the losses.

He added that the reforms which are aimed at sustainably reducing losses in the energy sector, will be outlined in the updated Energy Sector Recovery Plan (ESRP), which will be approved by Cabinet by the end of June 2023.

Ofori-Atta whiles addressing a press conference on June 19, 2023, he stated it will be accompanied by, amongst others, the: i. Operationalization of a framework to guide the granting of energy sector subsidies by the end of June 2023;

ii. Implementation of an inter-utility debt settlement framework on a quarterly basis starting from June 2023; and

iii. Implementation of a mechanism to enforce the guidelines of the Cash Waterfall Mechanism (CWM) and Natural Gas Clearinghouse (NGC) by end-June 2023.

The Finance Minister who is quite optimistic about the country’s recovery added that similar reforms will be instituted in the cocoa sector as well.

He said: “Similar reforms are envisaged under the PC-PEG to revamp the Cocoa Sector and reduce/eliminate the annual losses of Cocobod and its indebtedness.

“The reforms in the Cocoa sector include the implementation of a turnaround strategy, to be approved by Cabinet by end-June 2023. This is expected to address cocoa pricing issues, Cocobod oversight challenges, introduce cost rationalisation measures, and a phase-out of quasi-fiscal spending.”

Other structural reforms to entrench fiscal discipline and bolster transparency include reforms to enhance revenue administration and tax policy, operationalization of the Human Resource Management Information System, enhancing spending controls and prevention of arrears build-up, and streamlining of earmarked funds.

In addition, Government is transitioning from Central Government reporting to General Government, and from cash to accrual reporting, the minister said.

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