The Minority in Parliament is calling on the government to completely de-cap the Road Fund, allowing it to solely finance road projects and pay contractor debts.
According to the minority, it will support the reinstatement of road tolls, only if the government accepts its suggestion. It comes on the back of the proposed increase in rates, following government’s decision to reintroduce road tolls after abolishing the collection in 2021.
The Earmarked Funds Capping and Realignment Act, 2017 (Act 947) of the constitution, gives the finance minister the authority to commit a portion of road tolls to the Road Fund, managed by the Ministry of Roads and Highways and use the remainder for other purposes.
Governs Kwame Agbodza, the Minority Chief Whip and a Ranking Member of Parliament’s Roads and Transport Committee, averred that it will only accept the government’s decision to reintroduce road tolls, if it is willing to de-cap the tolls.
“The only way the Minority will be interested in this discussion at all, is to get an assurance that the road fund will totally be de-capped. So that the numerous contractors who have worked and whose certificates are lying in the Ministry and other agencies, will have the ability to get their monies paid to them, so that they can be back to site to fix roads.
“We are not going to support government to bring the toll back, if it will only bring GH¢ 2.4 billion and then only GH¢1 billion is used for roads and the remainder is used for the National Cathedral, we will not be part of this.”
Governs Kwame Agbodza
The Minority in parliament had been advocating for the reintroduction of road tolls, arguing that the cessation was not financially sustainable, especially since the government is struggling to raise revenue.
Road Tolls At GH¢5 Will Help The Government Generate More Revenue For The Country.
Meanwhile, Chairman of Parliament’s Roads and Highways Committee in Parliament, Kennedy Osei Nyarko, wants road tolls pegged at GH¢5.
Kennedy Osei Nyarko believes that setting the toll at GH¢5, will help the government generate more revenue for the country. He was speaking to journalists about the government’s proposed reintroduction of road tolls and said, only that amount of money will be considered as the toll rate.
“After suspending the road tolls for more than a year, why do we just add 50 pesewas to it? As the Roads Committee Chair, I will not support anything less than GH¢5. I am doing that based on the average road toll in the subregion and globally, which is $1.”
Kennedy Osei Nyarko
The government has revised the schedules of the Fees and Charges (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 2022, (Act 1080). The amendments are in line with the government’s intention to restart collecting tolls on some roads, pending the completion of the steps to identify the roads and highways to be affected by the reintroduction of the tolls.
To this end, the Ministry of Finance has commenced the procedures, necessary to determine the toll foundation rates, while the Ministry of Roads and Highways considers them. The proposed rates have witnessed an average increase of 88 percent from the previous charges.
The Finance Ministry in a statement said, “we are by this letter sending the recommended rates for input by the Ministry of Roads and Highways, to enable this Ministry to finalize the schedule of fees under the upcoming Legislative Instrument”. This year, the government will resume the collection of road tolls on selected roads in the country.
The reinstatement of the road toll, was one of the revenue-generating plans in the 2023 budget that Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, submitted to Parliament last November. Payment of tolls on public roads ceased in November 2021, as part of policy measures announced by the government in the 2022 Budget; a move that displaced several road toll collectors.
The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, admitted that the suspension of road toll collection had hampered the government’s revenue generation. He claims that the hasty decision made in anticipation of the passage of the E-levy, has now become a major issue, with the government struggling to deal with it.
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