Ghana expects GH¢584m from oil in 2011

Ghana expects oil revenue of GH¢584 million to accrue to the national budget in 2011, the Minister of Finance, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor has said in the 2011 Budget statement presented to Parliament Thursday November 18, 2010.

The amount he said is equivalent to 1.9% of GDP.

Commercial production of oil in Ghana is expected in the early weeks of December 2010. According to Tullow Oil, the major stakeholders in Ghana’s Jubilee oil field, the largest oil field to be discovered in West Africa in the last 10 to 15 years, the field contains 1.5 billion barrels of oil and has 17 wells.

The Minister also said the total non-oil revenue and grants for the 2011 fiscal year is estimated at GH¢10,017.8 million, equivalent to 32.1 percent of GDP. The expected non-oil revenue and grants for the year represents an increase of 13.5 percent over the projected outturn for 2010.

According to Dr. Duffuor, domestic revenue is estimated at GH¢9,299.5 million, 21.5 percent higher than the projected outturn for 2010.

He said total tax revenue is estimated at GH¢7,712.5 million, representing 24.8 percent of GDP. This shows an increase of 26.4 percent over the projected outturn for 2010, he indicated.

The Minister said direct taxes are estimated to increase by 40.1 percent to GH¢3,334.8 million in 2011, accounting for 43.2 percent of total tax revenue. Of this amount, he said, royalties and income tax from oil is estimated at GH¢321.9 million.

For more details in the 2011 Budget, please click here to download a pdf version.

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi