Professor at the University of Ghana Business School, Patrick Asuming, has argued for the removal of the e-levy, regardless of whether road tolls are reinstated or not. He criticized the e-levy as a poorly conceived tax.
Prof. Asuming also expressed skepticism about the government’s plan to reintroduce road tolls.
He pointed out that the government has previously made similar promises to reinstate other abolished levies, which ultimately did not come to pass, leading him to doubt the current proposal.
“The e-levy is a bad tax that should be removed with or without the road tolls. I am very suspicious that these road tolls will be back.
In 2023 they stated that they were going to bring back some tolls that were removed but we didn’t hear anything about it. Now you are saying this.
“I am not sure there is a real intention to bring back the road tolls. It was a bad idea to remove the road tolls,” he said on the Key Points on TV3 Saturday, July 27.
The government is preparing to reinstate road tolls, which were discontinued in 2021. Finance Minister Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam announced that the Cabinet has approved a framework for reintroducing the tolls by 2025.
He made this announcement during the mid-year budget review presented to Parliament on July 23.
In June, Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) flagbearer, advocated for the return of road tolls to enhance road infrastructure in Ghana.
He noted that the government currently lacks sufficient funds for infrastructure projects and proposed that road tolling could be an effective solution to address this funding gap.
“Let us go back to a system of broad-based road tolls. The tolling system has to come back, and I think it will come back.
“It is a fundamental mistake of the government to place all road projects on the budget. The government doesn’t have enough money and the private sector has to be brought in,” he noted.
Government canceled road toll collections in 2021 after introducing the e-levy which government said was to substitute the road tolls.
However, the e-levy has failed to live up to its promise prompting government to bring back the tolls in 2025.
Source: tigpost.co
