The GPRTU says it will not allow the government to increase road tolls until the latter accounts for the losses in the road toll revenue.
The Minister for Roads and Highways, Kwasi Amoako Atta, says he had put in a proposal to cabinet for an increase in road tolls.
This, he explained, was necessary by dint of losses incurred in the road fund, which are in the region of about 40 to 80 percent due to poor management.
Mr Amoako Atta failed to explain the causes of these huge losses, as well as efforts to plug the leakage, he said the increment was vital for the country.
But the Greater Accra Industrial Relations Officer of the Ghana Private Roads and Transport Union (GPRTU), Abbas Ibrahim Moro, said the Ministry owed Ghanaians answers for the losses in the road funds before any increment.
“We, as drivers, will not be happy for this increment. The government must give us explanations to convince us,” he argued.
At the moment, motorists, except cyclists, pay from 50 pesewas to GHc2 at the toll booth, depending on the weight of the vehicle, and the increment was done about six years ago.
Initially, when the paying of road tolls started, drivers paid the toll only once for the entire day, but, the need for better road infrastructures to correspondent with the increasing volumes of vehicles, over the years, necessitated the need for a change in the payment, which is, motorists pay the road toll as many times as they ply a stretch that has a toll booth.
Story by Umar Sheriff / awakenewsonline.com