The Ranking Member on the Roads and Transport Committee of Parliament, Governs Kwame Agbodza, has described as unfortunate how the announcement to scrap road tolls was handled by the Roads and Highways Minister even before the 2022 budget is approved.

Speaking to Citi News, the Member of Parliament for Adaklu indicated that the situation could have been handled properly.

The Ministry of Roads and Highways, shortly after the announcement by the Finance Minister ordered a cessation of road tolls collection within 24 hours.

However, the Speaker of Parliament called for the reversal of the directive pending parliament’s approval of the budget.

The Ministry then clarified that the directive was not to set aside the law for toll collection, but merely to stop the operationalization of the law.

According to the Ministry, the directive became necessary as tension was building up among some motorists following the Finance Ministry’s announcement.

But Mr. Agbodza said the clarification was just “a face-saving” attempt by the Roads and Highways Minister, Kwesi Amoako-Atta.

“What I see him doing is to try to defy Parliament… it was in bad faith. He shouldn’t have done that. He should have just complied because he has breached the law.”

“The Finance Minister was quite clear that this would take effect when Parliament approves the budget, so I don’t think there was any Ghanaian who thought it was an immediate effect,” the MP added.

The government has announced the abolishment of tolls on all public roads in the country pending Parliamentary approval in the 2022 budget statement.

The government feels toll booths cause heavy traffic and impact negatively on productivity, despite the revenue it provides.

Although the decision was to take effect with the approval of the budget, the Roads Minister’s action has effectively ended the toll collection.

The persons manning the various toll booths will be reassigned by the government.