Kennedy Osei Nyarko, the chairman of the Roads and Highways Committee in Parliament, proposes to set the price of road tolls at GH 5.
Kennedy Osei Nyarko thinks that by fixing the toll at GH5, the government will be able to raise more money for the nation.
When discussing the government’s proposal to reinstate road tolls with media, he stated that only that sum of money would be taken into account 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.” Schedules of the Fees and Charges (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 2022, have been updated by the government (Act 1080).
The changes are in keeping with the government’s plan to resume toll collection on some roads while efforts are taken to determine which highways and roads will be impacted by the tolls’ restoration.
To this aim, while the Ministry of Roads and Highways evaluates them, the Ministry of Finance has started the procedures needed to establish the toll foundation rates.
The proposed tariffs represent an average increase of 88 percent over the charges made previously.
In a statement, the Finance Ministry stated, “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”.The government will start collecting vehicle tolls on a few national highways this year.
One of the revenue-generating strategies in the 2023 budget that Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta presented to Parliament last November was the reinstatement of the road toll.
As part of the policy changes outlined by the government in the 2022 Budget, payment of tolls on public highways was discontinued in November 2021, which resulted in the displacement of numerous road toll collectors.
Ken Ofori-Atta, the finance minister, acknowledged that the government’s ability to generate money had been affected by the suspension of road toll collecting.
He asserts that the administration is having trouble with the major issue caused by the rushed decision made in anticipation of the approval of the E-levy.
Since the administration is having trouble raising money, the minority in parliament has been pushing for the reinstatement of road tolls, alleging that the suspension was not fiscally viable.
