A former deputy minister of finance, Fiifi Kwetey, has argued that Ghanaians ought to tighten their belts as the mid-year budget review presented by the minister of finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, would lead to doom.

According to him, the tax increases announced by the minister means there are challenging times ahead for Ghanaians.

Speaking on Citi TV on Monday, July 29, 2019, Kwetey added that the proposed increase in fuel prices and communications service tax could lead to a strain on personal finances of Ghanaians.

He added that this would affect everything from transport to food to other aspects of the lives of Ghanaians.

“The hardship on them is going to increase. For example a gallon of petrol is actually going to see almost 1 cedi in addition.

That is massive and it is going to affect everything, not just transport; food is going to be affected. Much more hardship is going to come.

In this day and age when you have hardships, Ghanaians take a lot of comfort in going on social media, laughing at jokes and all that and that one as well has now seen an increase in tax,” he said.

Kwetey further noted that there is an urgent need for massive awakening since the government cannot handle the reality on the ground.

In other news, former president John Dramani Mahama has assured the people of the six newly created regions of a hospital each if he wins the 2020 elections.

Interacting with the people of Techiman in the Bono East region, he stated that the plan is a policy of the National Demcratic Congress (NDC).

The assurance came after the inauguration of an office complex for the NDC in the region. According to him, the NDC has never lied to the people of Ghana, and would therefore not begin now.