Government has in a further effort to cushion Ghanaians from the impact of the novel Coronavirus pandemic restored the free water for all Ghanaians by three more months.
This comes after the free water and 50% reduction in electricity charges for three months ended at the end of June.
For electricity however, the government extended it by three more months only for lifeline consumers for the rest of the year 2020.
This was announced by the Finance Minister during the presentation of the 2020 Mid-year budget to Parliament where government asked for approval of GHS11.8 billion supplementary budget to support its expenditure for the rest of the year.
For the next six months, government has also reduced the Communication Service Tax, CST, also known as ‘Talk Tax’ from 9% to 5%, the establishment of a GH¢2 billion Guarantee Facility to support all sectors of business and job retention, establishment of an Unemployment Insurance Scheme, the creation of a GH¢100 Fund for Labour and Faith-based organisations for retraining and skills development.
The rest are an increase in the CapBuss Programme by GH¢150 million, to among other things facilitate credit of GH¢50 million to support the Creative Arts, the Media and the Conference of Independent Universities.
Gov’t to launch GHS100bn Coronavirus Alleviation Revitalization Programme
In a bid to pursue an aggressive process of rebuilding the Ghanaian economy due to the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, government has announced the setting up of a 100 billion Ghana cedi development programme known as the ‘Ghana Coronavirus Alleviation Revitalization of enterprises Support Program’.
“Mr. Speaker, we wish to take this opportunity to announce to the people of Ghana that their President and his team have done a lot of thinking since March. We have brainstormed over the crisis with the view of using the challenges it presents rather as an opportunity to transform Ghana and for all Ghanaians. I am happy to announce that in the coming weeks the President will launch a Gh¢100 billion development programme. An ambitious and unprecedented three and half years programme called: Ghana CARES, “Obaatan Pa” which will anchor the comprehensive transformation of our society” the Finance Minister said.
