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GUTA President: The cancellation of road tolls was unnecessary.

Dr. Joseph Obeng, president of the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA), said that the government’s decision to stop collecting road tolls was unnecessary.

Dr. Obeng commented on a debate on the Ghanaian government’s choice to approach the IMF on TV3’s Key Points on Saturday, July 9 by saying, “The road tolls that have been suspended were unnecessary, people were paying.”

Following the Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta’s announcement in the budget presentation that toll collecting would cease, the collection of road tolls was put on hold.

He stated, “A comprehensive review will be conducted after every fifth-year taking into account, other factors besides inflation, improving the quality of service delivery, and privatization of some of the services, where feasible. This was during the presentation of the 2022 budget statement to Parliament on Wednesday, November 17. Mr. Speaker, we need to repair our roads.

“We are repairing our highways. True, more roads have been repaired and are being repaired in the past five years than at any other comparable time in the history of our country. This money will allow us to do even more of what we want to accomplish.

“For this reason, successive governments have imposed and maintained tolls on a select number of public roadways to earn money for road development and upkeep. In many nations, things are like this. But over time, the toll booths have developed into unhealthy market hubs, increased traffic on our highways, prolonged travel times, and had a detrimental effect on productivity.

“In addition to these annoyances, the congestion caused by the tolling sites also contributes to pollution in and around those areas. The government has eliminated all tolls on public highways and bridges in order to solve these issues. When the Budget is adopted (after appropriation or right away? ), this comes into effect. There will be a change in the toll collecting staff. The money lost as a result of eliminating the tolls will be more than made up for by the anticipated increase in productivity and less environmental damage.

After the suspension, the administration was requested to think about reinstituting the tolls.

For instance, Dr. Alex Ampaabeng, a Fiscal Policy Specialist at Oxfam, questioned how the government would continue to produce enough cash to maintain the country’s roads after the tolls were removed.

Speaking on the TV3/3FM program Key Points He said, “The decision to remove the road tolls, I will think it should be given a second look at,” on Saturday, November 20, 2021. Ask yourself why we are even collecting the road tolls in the first place, and you will understand why I am saying that. While we may be happy that there is no longer a road toll, we should stop and consider how our roads will be maintained if you are collecting the tolls for road maintenance.

“Even with the tolls on the highways, we continued to gripe about how the worst routes are often the ones with tolls. So, how will you continue to maintain these roads?

“To me, it seems quite sad to argue that traffic is the primary cause or one of the primary causes. I examine it from two perspectives. It is true that sometimes I may spend two or three cedis waiting in line before paying one cedi. However, because I reside in Oyarifa, it takes me two to three hours to get from Legon to Madina, and there are no toll booths there.

The rationale of traffic is now somewhat more difficult to accept. Instead of abolishing the road tolls, I would have sought a reform. If you actually intended to raise money for roads, the traffic is not a valid reason to repeal the road toll.

“In the UK, there is a fee known as the road tax. You pay your road tax once a year at the end of the year, as a sticker to put on the front of your vehicle. As a result, just a handful of their highways have road toll booths on them.

“I had anticipated the government stating, ‘When you renew your roadworthy, I’m going to put $200 for the whole year; that money would be termed road tax. The thing you must do is put aside or designate that specific money so it doesn’t end up in the consolidated account.

“The funds would be used to keep the roads in good condition. In order to be held accountable, we may state at the end of the year that you collected 100 million in road tolls or taxes and were able to maintain roads A, B, and C.

“I don’t believe it would have been difficult for Ghanaians to pay once they saw those obvious indicators of doing so. My last thought is that I hope the government goes back and reconsiders reintroducing it as an electronic-based system where accountability will be up to par.

“Where are you going to get the money if you eliminate this? We don’t have the greatest roads in our nation.”

source: 3news.com

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