Chairman of the Association of Road Contractors, John Afful Junior says the proposed road fund to be paid by motorists is inadequate to maintain roads in the country.
According to him, the amount is not enough for road maintenance and construction of good roads.Therefore, there is the need for an increment to facilitate road maintenance and expansion.
“It’s a disgrace to us, what can 50 pesewas do in this country?“ he quizzed.
Speaking in an interview with Samuel Eshun on the Happy Morning Show, Mr. Ahinful urged government to provide adequate information on road funds for citizens to understand in order to comply willfully.
“As at yesterday some of us didn’t understand why cars should be paying 50ps.This shows we are not serious” he said.
He revealed that other African countries pay road tolls as high as one dollar which constitute good roads and expansion therefore it would be more convenient to amend the toll pegged at 50 pesewas.
“One dollar is about 13cedis and we are here talking about 1 cedi. Are we serious in this country? We compare ourselves to countries taking 13cedis, it won’t happen. The 1 cedi is not enough, it can’t solve our problems, government has to amend it” he echoed.
Meanwhile, Chairman of Parliament’s Roads and Highways Committee in Kennedy Osei Nyarko has suggested road tolls to be 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.
Responding to this suggestion,the Contractor believes it is a decision in the right direction since the proposed fee cannot meet the needs of government annually,hence the need for an increment.
“5 cedis makes a lot of sense. Previously this toll was woefully inadequate “.About 70 million cedis is generated for the whole year, are we serious? so if 50pesewas is giving us 70 million cedis for a whole year, how much will we use for a project, because one project is far more than 70 million cedis. Therefore let’s agree on the increment so that we will know how it will go” he mentioned.
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 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.
