The Ranking Member on the Roads and Transport Committee in Parliament, Governs Kwame Agbodza, is asking for the reinstatement of the collection of road tolls.
He says the cessation of the toll as done by the sector minister without recourse to the law is hurting the government’s coffers in the failed anticipation of revenue to be generated from the heavily resisted Electronic Transaction Levy (E-levy).
On the Tuesday edition of the Citi Breakfast Show, Mr. Agbodza implored the government to reverse the cessation of the tolls and show Ghanaians real results in improving the country’s road infrastructure.
“No driver complained of road tolls except for the fact that they said they are paying for the road tolls and that money is not used to improve their roads. The Roads Minister took an illegal decision that is affecting the payment of road toll.”
“We are wilfully losing GH¢250,000 a day, and now we want to spend more money. I am saying that, if they bring back the road tolls today, that will not be too much burden on the taxpayer because they are used to it. But what you are forcing on them is E-levy, which has not been approved [yet]”, he advised.
Commenting on suggestions by the Minister for Roads and Highways, Kwesi Amoako-Attah, to use part of the money accrued from the E-levy to clear arrears owed road contractors, Mr. Agbodza maintained that the move is not feasible.
The Adaklu MP explained that the amount to be raised from the E-levy is not enough to settle all road debts.
“The government said it was going to make GH¢6 billion from the E-levy, but what percentage of it will go into the payment of road contractors. They claim the tax is going to be used to create jobs and pay road contractors. There is nothing in the E-levy Bill that says that it is going to be used to pay contractors. That is the problem currently. So E-levy is not going to eradicate the indebtedness of government to road contractors. It may reduce it, but not in its entirety,” he told the host of the Citi Breakfast Show, Bernard Avle, on Tuesday.
