Deputy public relations officer of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU), Samuel Amoah, has expressed his misgivings about government’s decision to reintroduce road tolls despite its resolve to still maintain the electronic levy.

According to him, government’s initial bargain was to scrap road tolls and implement the collection of the e-levy as a means to raise revenue for the country; hence, the decision to run the two means of generating funds concurrently is unfair to the union. He revealed that the absence of communication between government and stakeholders who will be impacted by the decision doesn’t equally bode well.

“Yes, [it is unfair] because when the tolls were taken away, what they told us was that they were bringing the e-levy and that one is going to help and replace the tolls. But now that the e-levy is there and the toll too is coming, it’s a bit challenging. That is why we are saying they should come out and explain things.
“When you’re doing something and you get a proper explanation about the amount that you are paying, then the taxpayer will also not find it too difficult to pay the money. But when you say I am bringing in e-levy to come and take toll away and now e-levy is there and you’re bringing toll back, then it means that we are lost in the whole show…”
Samuel Amoah

Mr Amoah lamented that the move by government will certainly lead to economic hardships for union members. He indicated that coupled with other tax-inducing obligations drivers already have, the road tolls may likely compound their problems.

“Definitely, it will create hardships because now that spare parts are high, lubricants are high, now insurance has increased by 30% – all these things, drivers are paying and if e-levy too is there and you’re going to increase toll to by 100% thereabout, it’s going to bring another economic hardship on our members. That is why we are saying we are not against they bringing it back but at least, it shouldn’t go beyond 50%.”
Samuel Amoah

Despite his reservations about the reintroduction of road tolls, Mr Amoah explained that the transport union has embraced government’s decision. That notwithstanding, he expressed the need for government to be transparent about the use of monies collected from drivers.

“What I will say about the reintroduction of the road tolls is that we as a transport organization, we are not against bringing back the road tolls because we know in every country, there are road tolls and those are the monies used in fixing proper roads for us. When we were paying the road tolls, the challenges we were having was that the monies we were paying, we were not seeing what the monies were doing for us. Because our expectation was that we’ll pay road tolls, and our roads will be fixed. That is the main reason why some time ago we were complaining.”
Samuel Amoah

Government urged to be transparent with road toll revenue

The Deputy PRO of GPRTU recounted that when the road tolls were initially scrapped, drivers were made aware that the scrapping of the road tolls was to avert traffic congestion, among other things. Nonetheless, he noted that government must holistically engage the union to explain why it has become necessary now to reintroduce it.

“… We also heard from some people that there wasn’t proper accountability when it comes to collection of road tolls. Now that they’re bringing it back, our expectation is that as major stakeholders, there has to be some engagement to engage us and convince us that with these new measures that they’re bringing in, it’s going to help in terms of the traffic congestion issue, in terms of the leakages that they were talking about.
“But if today they just wake up and say they’re bringing it without explanations to us… That is our problem…”
Samuel Amoah

Commenting on what percentage of increment will be ideal, Mr Amoah indicated that if there has to be an increment, at least 50% will suffice. He explained that because the initial GHC1 charge did not yield much in terms of infrastructure imporvement of roads, government must justify its current prosposition.