GPRTU wants toll charges reviewed in 2022 Budget
The Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) has called on the government to review the payment of road tolls in the country.
Godfred Abulbire Adogma, general secretary of GPRTU said the payment of road tolls should be substituted with GH1 pesewa increment on the energy levy and that can take care of the tolls that are collected at the various toll booths in the country.
“When you come to the issue of road tolls, even if the government decides to raise the current amount of GHC1 to GHC2, that wouldn’t be enough. So, we have itemized all the reasons and the government could scrap off all the toll booths and rather charge an amount on a litre per fuel, that can be another measure to prevent revenue leakages”, he noted.
On his part, a research fellow at the Centre for Social Policy Service at the University of Ghana, Dr Kwadwo Opoku said the government should consider subsidising public transport usage such that it will increase its patronage.
He urged the government to open the transport sector for private participation.
According to him, this will decrease the transportation burden on the government and free up funds for other critical sectors of the economy.
He also mentioned that different tax instruments should be implemented to ensure an effective collection of revenue from road tolls.
Stakeholders of the transport sector met to share their thoughts on how best the government can run the sector with various interventions ahead of the presentation of the 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy in Parliament.
The forum was organised by a policy think tank, the Center for Policy Scrutiny (CPS).
