Managing Editor of the Custodian Newspaper, Awudu Mahama, insists it is unfair for commercial transport operators to pay the same amount at toll booths as private car owners.
According to him, commercial transport operators end up paying multiple charges at toll booths whilst private car owners pay just once. “Private cars must pay more at the tollbooths than commercial vehicles. If the tollbooths are reintroduced then private car owners must pay more because they can afford to own cars whilst commercial drivers have to render accounts to their car owners at the end of the day.”
To him, it is unfair for the rich (private car owners) to pay less than commercial transport operators who drive to make a living.
“The commercial transport operator makes multiple trips in a day and even when road tolls are increased it becomes a burden on them so we need to increase road tolls for private car owners whilst commercial transport owners pay less,” he submitted in the Editor’s Take Edition of the Happy Morning Show with Samuel Eshun.
The Minister of Roads and Highways, Kwasi Amoako Attah, has said the exigencies of the situation on grounds in future will determine if road tolls will be reintroduced.
He made this known at a town hall meeting on e-levy in Koforidua on Thursday, January 27, 2022.
The government abolished the road toll in November last year after the presentation of the 2022 budget.
But at a town hall meeting on e-levy in Koforidua on Thursday, January 27, 2022, the Minister of Finance Ken Ofori Atta hinted that “road toll may come” as some major roads in the country are expanded into six lanes and dual carriage roads.
When asked if road tolls will be reintroduced in future based on the comment of the Finance Minister, Mr Amoako Atta said “When we get to the bridge we will cross it. Road toll was giving this country a maximum of about 78 million cedis a year because we were an average of 5 to 6 million a month so even the 78m is the average and in some years it drops to even as low as 55 million. Land depending upon the conditions on the ground I can tell you 78 million cannot even construct 10 km of road.
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