Road tolls removal a ‘chain around our necks’ – Finance Minister

Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has said the removal of road tolls has become a ‘chain around the necks’ of government following the challenge being faced in the passage of the E-Levy.

“The challenge really is, we passed the appropriation very quickly because there was an absolute belief in the direction that we were going and then the politics came to stall the issue of the revenue measure which is E-Levy, and therefore, the issue of the tolls being disbanded having become a chain around our necks,” he said at a town hall meeting in the Volta Region on Friday.

It comes after Roads Minister, Kwasi Amoako-Attah rejected claims that the removal of the tolls has occasioned financial losses for the state.

“There are in total 38 toll stations across the country. There have been no lost of revenue to the Ministry of Roads and Highway since the cessation on the collection of road tolls,” he told Parliament on Friday.

According to him, “the government is fully determined to use all forms of revenue into the road fund to build infrastructure in the country including revenues from tolls.”

Answering questions from the Member of Parliament for Adaklu, Governs Kwame Agbodza, on the amount of money lost to the directive, the Roads and Highway Minister said no revenue was lost.

The answer, however, did not go down well with the Ranking Member for the Roads and Transport Committee who probed further.

He said collection of the road tolls was generating some level of revenue to the government contrary to what the Minister wants the House to believe.