A Fiscal Policy Specialist with Oxfam Dr. Alex Ampabeng is advocating for the consolidation of all road levies into one road tax.
He believes that the introduction of a road tax could help generate about 20 million cedis in revenue for the government annually.
“Scrap all toll booths on the roads, scrap all charges relating to toll levies at the pumps or when you go to DVLA. In place of it, let’s introduce the road tax. the road tax is for every single road user, not only the one that crosses the toll booth. Because you may be just one meter behind the toll booth and you will be subjected to pay the toll booth but I am just in front of the toll booth, we are plying the same road but you will not be asked to pay the toll at the booth.”
The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta, had in the midyear budget review mentioned the introduction of road tolls on newly constructed road projects which are not funded by the government after the earlier scrapping of the policy.
Dr. Alex Ampabeng is of the view that the introduction of a road tax would ensure that all road users are fairly taxed.
“So for me, there’s no fairness in it. Consolidate them into one single payment let’s call it the road tax, for every single road user. How it might work, we’ll choose to pay it monthly or quarterly, or yearly. There are two million cars in Ghana, even if it’s GHS 10 a month, that is 20 million roughly on my projection of two hundred cars in Ghana. That is the right way to raise revenue: that is the fairer way of raising revenue. And to me, that money must be properly earmarked. It should not find itself in the consolidated account where it cannot be accounted for”.
