Gov’t to consider reintroduction of road tolls as E-Levy suffer major setback

The government may have to consider the reintroduction of road tolls following the latest setback suffered by the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-Levy).

In a bid to get the support of the Minority in Parliament, the government through Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta on Friday, January 28, 2022, presented a revised rate of the charge for the levy from 1.75% to 1.5%.

Unfortunately, it was not what the Minority wanted as the group rejected and demanded the total scrapping of the levy.

Before today, Roads Minister Kwasi Amoako Attah had hinted that government may have to consider bringing back the road tolls.

Asked during the town-hall meeting of the government on Thursday whether the road tolls will be reintroduced, the Minister answered, “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.”

Mr. Kwasi Amoako Attah continued, “With the introduction of the E-levy, this will help to put in totally something about 6 to 7 billion into the road sector to build the road infrastructure of this country, and that amount can be securitized and used to raise a road sector bond of about 10 billion dollars and that will be the way to go and revamp the sector then all outstanding payment due to contractors will be completely paid off and contractors will be paid on time when contracts are awarded.”