Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has urged the government to scrap the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-Levy) since the government is planning to reintroduce road tolls.
In an interview with Philomina Kuntu Blankson on Rainbow Radio, the North Tongu MP said the government made it very clear that the E-Levy will serve as a replacement for road tolls before implementing the policy. He insisted that the E-Levy couldn’t coexist with reinstituting the toll.
“The government told us that they were introducing the E-Levy because they had removed road tolls. They can’t have it both ways if they want to reinstate the toad toll. ” The E-Levy must be repealed.”
In a previous post by Tru News Report, the Ministry of Finance issued a press release saying that tolls would be brought back, but this time it wanted to raise the rate. According to a memo, the plan is for all prices to go up by an average of 88.05 percent.
The Finance Ministry wants to change the prices of road tolls. Heavy buses, for example, would have to pay GH2.00. Cars will now pay GH1.00 instead of GH50, motorbikes will pay GH0.50 instead of GH0.10, and Pick-up/4*4 vehicles will pay GH1.50 instead of GH1.00.
Deputy Roads Minister Stephen Jalulah said that the government’s decision to bring back road toll is because the E-levy is not bringing in enough money.
Okudzeto Ablakwa stated that the government did not think things through properly before taking action.
“I must state unequivocally that this government does not carefully consider its policies before implementing them. As a public policy student, I can say that this government does not have the ability to consult widely and to be scientific or empirical in its policy implementation.
“Unfortunately, our government is uninterested in consulting. All of their policies have been a disaster. Several examples, including the luxury car tax and the benchmark at ports, have all been disasters. We advised them against eliminating the toll, but they did not listen.” he added.
Source – Tru News Report
