The minority envisages that the bond issued by government would cause a loss of about 330 million dollars per annum over the next fifteen years.Cassiel Ato Forson, Minority Spokesperson on Finance says the country is purportedly going to lose a lot of money as a result of the difference between the rate of the bond and that of the current treasury bill.
The minority says government would lose $330m yearly over $2.25bn bond set up by Finance Minister
These comments follow recent actions taken by the minority
The minority’s projection comes at the back of a petition sent to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission for the disclosure of the terms of the bond.Speaking to the media, Cassiel Ato Forson commented that although the Minister said the proceeds will be used for the purposes of switching short-term domestic instruments, he has decided to go for a long-term debt of 19.5 % to switch off a debt of 16.35%.
This he said would be detrimental to the state of the economy.
"In fact, his actions are woefully causing financial loss to the state. From the calculations, it is clear that Ghana will be better off if we had decided to roll over the existing treasury bonds. Ghana would have been better off with $330 million US dollars if he had not decided to go on this tangent.” he added.
Parliament had passed a half hour motion early on to compel the Minister of Finance to provide detailed information on the recent 2.25-billion-dollar bond issued by Government.
The Minister has given a week to respond to the motion.
The motion which was filed by the Minority Leader had a request for the full complement of documentation related to the issuance, the participants, the utilization of proceeds and the currency in which the bond was settled.