70% of tax revenue is used for debt servicing

70% of tax revenue is used for debt servicing – Ofori-Atta

Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta has revealed that government expends 70 per cent of the country’s tax revenue on debt serving.

Explaining reasons the Domestic Debt Exchange is being introduced, Mr. Ofori-Atta said the move has become necessary due to the challenges with debt servicing.

According to him, “debt servicing is consuming “almost of government’s revenue and also 70 per cent of tax revenue. Which is why we are announcing this to restore our capacity to service debt.”

Mr Ofori-Atta said domestic bondholders will be asked to exchange their instruments for new ones

“Existing domestic bonds as of December 1, will be exchanged for a set of four new bonds maturing in 2027, 2029, and 2037.”

The annual coupons on all of these bonds will be set at 0 % in 2023, 5% in 2024 and 10% from 2025 until maturity.

He, therefore, asked bondholders to support government’s course to revamp the economy.

Original Source: JoynewsOnline