Minister for Roads and Highways, Kwasi Amoako Attah has said that the government is looking forward to the passage of the E-levy in order to shore up revenue that would be “securitized to raise a bond” to build the road sector infrastructure of the country.
Answering questions on the floor of parliament on Friday March 4, 2022, Mr Amoako Attah said “government in it’s wisdom has proposed the passage of the E-levy to bring in more revenue to build the road infrastructure for all of us”.
He said the government’s policy and direction is to bring in some form of correction as the road toll revenue is built into the proposed E-levy hence government is determined that it is brought to being.
Addressing the media later on the Roads Minister’s comments, the ranking member on Parliament’s Transport Committee, Hon. Kwame Agbodza who is also the Member of Parliament for the Adaklu constituency, said, the minister’s comments have exposed the government’s lies about the E-levy.
“The NPP government pretended that the E-levy was to stop Ghana from borrowing and that we should be on our own and generate our own revenue to do the things that we needed to do,” he stated.
The MP for Adaklu was shocked by the transport minister’s revelation to the effect that the E-levy was going to be securitized to raise a bond which he observed was only another way to give government the lee-way for further borrowing resulting in further hardships on the population as monies borrowed would have to be paid back.
Hon. Agbodza further chastised the government for suspending the road tolls saying the government’s assertion that road tolls were not generating enough revenue was a flimsy excuse, adding that the same road tolls generated a total of GHC 78 million which should have been channelled into paying NABCO employees at least instead of scrapping the tolls.
He wondered why other tolls and levies were not scrapped but only the road tolls.
“We just want Ghanaians to know that contrary to government’s assurance that E-levy is to give us independence from the Bretton-Woods institutions so that we stop borrowing, is false and insincere on the part of government as the minister’s own comments on the floor today suggests that the E-levy was going to be securitized to take bigger loans so that generations beyond ours and beyond Akufo-Addo would be saddled with debt”.
He said this is the reason the minority in parliament and indeed the majority of Ghanaians are opposing the passage of the E-levy.
By Nelson Ayivor