New Juaben Municipal Assembly to reduce fees and tolls

Koforidua, Jan. 20, GNA- The New Juaben Municipal Assembly has reviewed the new market rates and fees that sparked off protests by market women against the assembly on Thursday.

This was announced by the Municipal Chief Executive(MCE), Nana Adjei Boateng after he and officials of the Assembly had met the leaders of the market women to address their concerns.

The MCE who disclosed this to the GNA on Friday after the meeting said, the Assembly took into consideration some factors presented by the market women to review the rates to suit them.

He said the Assembly had, therefore, agreed to reduce the rate of the hawkers' daily license fee raised from 1,000 cedis to 2,000 cedis to 1,500 cedis and the monthly store rent of 11,000 cedis, which was raised to 38,000 cedis reduced to 25,000 cedis.

The operating license of 5,000 cedis, which was raised to 30,000 cedis had also been reviewed to 25,000 cedis, the MCE said. According to Nana Adjei Boateng, even though the market leaders had agreed to the reviewed prices, they requested to be given time to communicate the outcome of the meeting to their members and come back to meet the Assembly with their reactions. The MCE, however, made it clear that implementation of the new rates would start from Monday. Regarding the complaints by the Zongo market women, he said some factors had contributed to the low patronage of the market and the Assembly was bent on putting things in shape to ensure its full patronage.