Gov’t misses revenue target by 1.9 Percent in first half of 2024

Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, Minister for Finance, has disclosed that total revenue and grants for the first half of 2024 amounted to GHS74.7 billion, below the target of GHS76.1 billion, representing 1.9 percent.He said despite the shortfalls, the outturn showed a nominal year-on-year growth of 24.6 percent and constituted 42.3 percent of the budget's total revenue for the year.The Finance Minister said that strong non-oil revenue growth would balance oil revenue shortfalls in the first half of 2024.He said the revenue performance was mainly driven by the strong performance in non-oil tax revenue.Dr. Amin said total expenditures amounted to GHS95.9 billion, below the budget target of GHS104.8 billion.He said this at the mid-year budget review in Parliament, consistent with Section 28 of the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921).The Act requires the Minister to provide a mid-year fiscal policy review of the budget statement and economic policy of the government.The Finance Minister said pro visional data on government fiscal operations for the first half of 2024 indicated that revenue mobilisation and expenditure execution were broadly in line with the target.That, according to him, resulted in an overall budget deficit on a commitment basis of GHS21.3 billion.Dr. Amin noted that the corresponding primary balance on a commitment basis was a deficit of GHS2.3 billion, which represented 0.2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), compared to the deficit target of GHS2.4 billion, which represented 0.2 percent of GDP.Source: Ghana News Agency