Ghana’s Roads Minister Kwasi Amoakoh-Atta has revealed that about 50 percent of state revenue collected from our various road toll booths are lost to thievery by toll collectors.
The minister decried that such revenue leakages requires a collective action in order to extinguish it and that protect state coffers.
Hon. Kwasi Amoakoh-Atta at a ceremony held today to commission the new toll booth at Badukrom in the Shama District, warned hawkers to refrain from picking and releasing tickets issued but dropped by motorist after using the toll, to revenue collector for re-issuing.
He said that such act robs the country of huge sums of money which could have been used to finance other development.
“You are shortchanging your own country with the expected income. I believe this will stop”, he said.
He charged that everyone scrutinizes any ticket issued them at every toll booth.
“We have a CCTV camera here to check all those who are collecting money on behalf of my ministry and on behalf of the nation. So I want travelers to help us and I will be very glad if in a day or any day that it would be reported that somebody gave a ticket and the face of the ticket showed a different amount, and in such a case it will be a lower amount or an expired ticket. I hope it will not happen”, Mr Amoakoh Atta remarked.
He warned that perpetrators of such crime would be prosecuted if found.
“But that can be done if i can get hold of such a ticket which by all circumstances will establish a prima facie evidence, and we shall act with speed on it”, he fired
Mr Amoako-Atta charged that revenue collectors insist that every user of any vehicle or locomotive be charged, except those in the exclusion category.
“There are certain organizations that are exempted by law from paying tolls. These include; the Fire Service, the Ambulance Service, Police, the military and security agencies, and the diplomatic corps. Apart from these all other categories of organizations and individuals are supposed to pay the appropriate tolls when they get to the booth”
“…every single individual no matter who you are in Ghana, you are supposed to pay the appropriate toll when you get to any of our toll booth anywhere in Ghana”, Mr Amoakoh-Atta charged.
The new toll booth cost about GH2.2 million. Construction works begun in May 2018 and was completed in December 2018 under the auspices of the by the Road Maintenance Unit of that Ghana Highways Authority.
The facility is expected to cut down pressures on the overhead bridge on the Pra River at Beposo, resulting from huge traffic caused just at the end that leads Cape Coast, when motorist cue in to pay their toll.
Road engineers have complained the situation would overwhelm the bridge and might cause some calamity should authorities fail to relocate the old Beposo toll booth.
Business Today | Beachfmonline.com |Ghana
