A building and roads consultant, Ing. Abdulai Mahama is calling on government to officially announce the resumption of toll collection in the country.
He contends that government owes a number of road contractors and bringing toll collection back will help in the revenue generation for the country.
His call comes after the Finance Minister disclosed that users of the Accra-Tema Motorway will pay tolls post the completion of the expansion project.
Speaking to Citi News, Ing Mahama stressed on the need for toll collection to be digitalized in order to monitor at real time the monies realized.
“The tolls should be brought back because government is over-burdened. There are so many arrears that are owed all the contractors who are even doing normal routine maintenance to ensure improvement on our roads. Government is owing contractors. I even think that, the 38 toll booths in the country are not even enough. The earlier you bring the tolls back, the better. The digitization has to be apt so that we can make about four times of what we are already making.”
Ing. Abdulai Mahama further questioned the government’s plans to reintroduce tolls on newly constructed Public Private Partnership (PPP) roads after completion, beginning with the Accra-Tema Motorway.
“If you start to toll the Motorway and any other new road, how many new roads are we going to construct? How many are going to be heavy to attract PPP because the investor is coming to make money within a stipulated time.”
Government suspended the collection of road and bridge tolls during the 2022 budget statement.
But following Ofori-Atta’s disclosure of the tolling of some new roads during the mid-year budget review presented on Monday, July 25, 2022, some Ghanaians lambasted the government over the issue.
In a statement, the Roads Ministry insisted that government does not intend to re-introduce the road tolls which were suspended a few months ago.
The Minority in Parliament has been putting pressure on government to reinstate the collection of road tolls.
According to the caucus, bringing back road tolls will help government in its revenue drive following current economic challenges.
