Should the road toll booths be brought back?

For a start, let me say that I don't support the idea that road tollbooths be brought back on our highways. This is because of the chaos and traffic jams they cause on our highways.

The toll booths were abolished by the Minister of Roads and Highways, Hon. Kwasi Amoako Atta, after he was caught up in a traffic jam at the Kubease toll booth near Ejisu in November 2020. He spent over an hour in traffic at the toll booth.

After that incident, he sought every opportunity to get rid of the toll booths. So when the 2022 budget was read on 17th November 2021 and the Finance Minister introduced the E-Levy, he did not even wait for the budget to be approved. That same day the budget was read, he issued a statement to abolish tollbooths.

His hope was that part of the money that would accrue from the E-Levy would be used to replace the funds from the toll booths.

Even though I was in favour of the abolition of the toll booths, I did not think using the proceeds from the E-Levy to replace the funds from the road tolls was a good idea.

I was of the view that since the road tolls were being paid by drivers, it was necessary to introduce the road toll levy on the petroleum price build-up so that once you buy fuel you will automatically be paying something on road tolls.

That, to me, would be a fair tax because then every driver who buys petrol would pay the road toll levy, unlike the toll booth system which was being paid by only the drivers plying their trade on the highways.

After over a year of not-too-successful implementation of the E-Levy and the projected revenue not being realised, this same Hon. Kwasi Amoako Atta is seeking to bring back the toll booth system and its accompanying chaos and traffic jams on our highways.

I think bringing back the toll booths is not a good idea. I am for a situation where the toll booth levy would be introduced into the petroleum price build-up so that once you buy fuel, you would be paying something on the road tolls.