It doesn’t make sense to abolish road tolls – Analyst to government
Governments argument about the traffic situation as a reason for the cessation of road toll collection has been criticized.
The decision which has generated national discourse was announced by Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta during the presentation of the 2022 budget statement on Wednesday, November 17 2021 where he stated the directive will take effect immediately after the budget is approved and the toll collection attendants would be reassigned.
Ken Ofori-Atta said, “It is true that more roads have been fixed and are being fixed over the last five years than any relative period in the entire history of our nation. We even want to do a lot more and this budget will cater for this.
“That is why for decades, government after government imposed and maintained tolls on some public roads to raise funds for road construction and maintenance.
“This is the situation in many countries. However, over the years, the tolling points have become unhealthy market centres, led to heavy traffic on our roads, lengthened travel time from one place to another, and impacted negatively on productivity.
“The congestion generated at the tolling points, besides creating these inconveniences, also leads to pollution in and around those vicinities.
“To address these challenges, Government has abolished all tolls on public roads and bridges. This takes effect immediately the Budget is approved (after appropriation or now?). The toll collection personnel will be reassigned. The expected impact on productivity and reduced environmental pollution will more than offset the revenue forgone by removing the tolls.”
But the excuse being used by the government to discontinue this initiative has been challenged by Fiscal Policy Analyst with Oxfam Alex Ampaabeng and he has called on the government to reconsider its decision.
He also asked what other means the can government use to accrue income as tolls are no more in place.
Speaking during an interview he argued that “The decision to abolish the road tolls, I will say it should be given a second look at. The reason I am saying that is, ask yourself, why are we collecting the road tolls in the first place? If you are collecting the road tolls for road maintenance then while we are rejoicing that there is no longer road toll we need to pause and ask ourselves how are our roads going to be maintained.
“Even with the road tolls, we were still complaining that normally, the roads that have the tolls are the worst roads. So how are you going to maintain these roads going forward?
“To me, saying traffic is the main reason or one of the major reasons, I think it is quite unfortunate. I look at it from two angles. Yes, sometimes I will be in queue spending about two or three cedis to go and pay one cedi, that is a fair point. But again, I live in Oyarifa and I can spend about two or three hours from Legon to Madina but there is no road toll booth over there.
“So then it makes the justification of traffic a bit difficult to accept. I would have looked for a way to reform the road tolls rather than abolish it [sic]. The traffic is not an excuse to abolish the road toll if you really wanted revenue for the roads.
“In the UK, you have what they call the road tax. So at the end of the year, you go and buy your road tax, a sticker and stick in front of your car and it is a one-time payment. Therefore, most of their roads don’t have road toll booths on them, just a few.
“I would have looked forward to government saying, when you are going to renew your roadworthy, I am going to stick 200cedis for the whole year, that money would be called road tax. What you need to do is that you are going to set aside or earmarked that particular fund so it doesn’t find itself in the consolidated account.
“The money would be used in maintaining the roads. So at the end of the year, for accountability, we can say you have raised 100 million road tolls or taxes, you were able to maintain road A, road B, road C.
“Once Ghanaians see that visible signs of paying the tolls I don’t think it would have been difficult for them to pay. My final saying is that I hope government goes back, look at it again, reintroduce it in the form of electronic-based system, where the accountability mode of the collection will be on point.
“We don’t have the best of roads in this country, therefore, abolishing this, where are you going to get the money?” he wondered.
By: Stella Annan | myactiveonline.com Twitter @activetvgh
