Transport Minister effected this directive a day after the reading
Parliament has asked him to reverse directive
Chief Executive of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe has hit back at the transport minister over his directive for the cessation of toll booth collections and subsequent defense.
The Minister, Kwasi Amoako-Attah, a day after Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta’s presentation of the 2022 budget on Wednesday, November 17, 2021, issued a statement.
In this statement, he directed that the collection of all toll booth levies cease, effective 12am the following day.
Many toll booths after this were closed with attendants absent.
Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin however described the minister’s directive as disrespectful to parliament considering they are yet to debate and approve the budget.
In his defense as indicated in a statement, Mr. Amoako-Atta said the directive was misunderstood or misinterpreted by some motorists who assumed it was immediately being effected therefore failing to pay tolls.
“The Ministry is aware that the statement on the road and bridge tolls by the Minister of Finance as captured under Paragraph 306 of the 2022 Budget was to the effect that the cessation will be triggered immediately after parliament approves the budget.
“Unfortunately, the Minister of Finance’s statement either got misunderstood or misinterpreted by some motorists as many of them deemed the statement as having immediate effect and therefore decided not to pay the road and bridge tolls,” the statement issued by the Public Affairs Unit said in part.
Reacting to this on Citi TV’s “Big Issues” however, Franklin Cudjoe said the justification from the Minister’s camp was an insult on road users.
He believes there was no way the minister’s directive would have been misunderstood if he clearly stated the date, adding that it was a convenient way of trying to escape blame.
“It was a convenient way of somehow trying to douse the flame on the e-levy… You cannot tell us that if you told us that this will come into effect in January 2022, we will be confused and start breaking toll booths. This is an insult to those of us who use roads. We can read and write. This was one of those political games. This was too brazen and it is an insult to be told that people were going to disorganize and break into all forms of untoward behaviour. I don’t believe it. Even as we speak now, it [the minister’s directive] has still not been reversed,” he said.
