The Minister for Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has intimated that the abolishment of road tolls will have no significant effect on the Road Fund.
Speaking on the directive by Parliament for the tolls to be abolished in 2022, he averred that the road tolls contribute only about Ghc78 million to the Road Fund which generates about Ghc1.9 billion annually.
Aside the road toll not contributing much to the fund, Oppong Nkrumah said “only about 30% of vehicles plying our roads pay road tolls which is not a fair representation”.
“We are no more using Road tolls as a mechanism for funding public roads”.
Kojo Oppong Nkrumah
Oppong Nkrumah revealed that road tolls, Driver Vehicle and Licensing Authority (DVLA) charges and a percentage of taxes on Fuel prices contribute to the Road Fund.
Mr. Kodjo Oppong Nkrumah contributing to how the various workers who manned the toll booth wont be negatively affected indicated that, these workers who are numbering to about 100 would be integrated into sector by the Ministry of Roads and Highways to perform other significant tasks.
Speaking on the 1.75% levy on transactions, Mr. Oppong Nkrumah explained that the value of Mobile Money transactions have increased from about Ghc78.5billion in 2016 to Ghc564 billion in 2020 making it viable for taxation.
Road ministry’s directive was to intervene chaotic situation
In a related development, The Ministry of Roads and Highways has clarified that its earlier statement decreeing that toll collection be stopped across the country following the abolishment of road and bridge tolls in the 2022 budget, was to intervene in the chaotic situations that occurred at the various booths.
“The Ministry is aware that the statement on the road and bridge tolls by the Minister of Finance as captured under paragraph 306 of 2022 Budget was to the effect that the cessation will be triggered immediately after Parliament approves the budget”.
Ministry of Roads and Highways
The statement by the Roads Minister explained that soon after the Finance Minister announced the abolishment of the toll collection, some motorists misunderstood the announcement and engaged in fisticuffs with toll booth operators.
In order to stop this from degenerating, the statement stated that the ministry issued the earlier directive ordering the suspension of the collection.
“It was to avert further unfortunate incidents that the ministry intervened by issuing the directive”.
Ministry of Roads and Highways
The Ministry clarified that the action was taken to suspend the operationalization of the collection of the tolls and not to suspend the law.
“The ministry is aware of Parliament’s role in the imposition of taxes and the fixing of levies and charges and in the fullness of time, the appropriate thing would be done”.
Ministry of Roads and Highways
This clarification follows the directive by the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, to the Minister of Roads and Highways, Honorable Kwesi Amoako Atta, to reverse the decision to stop road toll payments in the country. Alban Bagbin indicated that the Minister acted wrongly by issuing such a directive.
