Minority Calls For Return Of Road Tolls To Increase Government Revenue

Minority Calls For Return Of Road Tolls To Increase Government Revenue

  • The Minority in Parliament has visited a call for the government to return the collection of road tolls
  • Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, said shortly after the finance minister's presentation yesterday that the cancellation of the tolls was denying Ghana critical funds
  • The Minority in Parliament also criticised the government for not consulting widely before scrapping the tolls

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The Minority in Parliament has repeated a call for the hastily scrapped road toll collection to be reintroduced to improve the government’s revenue generation drive.

Addressing the press shortly after the finance minister presented the measures to mitigate the economic hardships, Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu said the decision to halt road tolls was terrible for the government’s revenue.

Haruna Iddrisu road toll
Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu, said the cancellation of the tolls was a bad decision. Source: UGC
Source: UGC
"We want [road tolls] re-instated. We demand that tollbooths are made functional, and the revenues accruing from it be made available to the Republic,” Mr Iddrisu told a packed press on the forecourt of Parliament.

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Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, in November last year, surprised the whole nation when he presented a bold proposal to abolish all road tolls.

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Presenting the 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy Statement to Parliament on Wednesday, November 17, 2021, Mr Ofori-Atta said the proposal was to enhance productivity and reduce environmental pollution.

The minister said that the cancellation was also meant to reduce the heavy traffic that toll booths are known to cause nationwide.

The decision was heavily criticised as unnecessary and rushed by a section of the Minority and a section of the public since the country needed the revenue from the tolls for development.

Returning to the matter yesterday, the Minority Leader said it was wrong that the finance minister didn’t include the reintroduction of the road tolls among his strategies to mitigate the economic hardships.

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Haruna Iddrisu noted that the government needed every drop of revenue, especially those from sources such as the tolls.

“It’s as if [because] they have the mandate to govern they can do as they please. Nowhere in the world will you travel and not see functional toll booths,” Mr Iddrisu chastised the government.

He added that Ghana has already lost significant funds due to the scrapping of the toll booths.

“We think that it is only proper that it is reintroduced and probably adjusted to rake in the needed revenue and use it as a vehicle to promote the public-private partnership to improve our road infrastructure,” he said.

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Authors:
George Nyavor avatar

George Nyavor (Head of Politics and Current Affairs Desk) George Nyavor writes for YEN.com.gh. He has been Head of the Politics and Current Affairs Desk since 2022. George has over 9 years of experience in managing media and communications (Myjoyonline and GhanaWeb). George is a member of the Catholic Association of Media Practitioners Ghana (CAMP-G). He obtained a BA in Communications Studies from the Ghana Institute of Journalism in 2010. Reach out to him via george.nyavor@yen.com.gh.