The minister for Roads and railway Minister Amoako Atta has said that the refusal of Ghanaians to pay e-levy has made the government tied up in the construction of new roads.
One of the debatable topics in Ghana is the payment of the electronic levy imposed on Ghanaians on transactions. The initial percentage for the e-levy was 1.5% on a 100GH threshold. However, the government has reduced the percentage to 1% on all transactions made.
The road minister has blamed the inability of the government to build roads on the refusal of Ghanaians to pay the electronic levies. According to him, the government would have built roads if they had more money.
If all of us had contributed to the e-levy, it would have brought in a lot of money to replace the tollbooths and we would have built more roads for ourselves,” he told the media.
He indicated that over the years monies generated from tollbooths are unable to construct even 10km of roads because after drawing out salaries, there is nothing left for any meaningful work to be done.
“The law is still there. If they have to be in the queue for four to three hours and you get there and you pay 50 pesewas. Ghana was paying the lowest toll in the whole world. I challenge anybody to tell me which country which was paying tolls lower than Ghana.”
“We were paying the lowest toll in the whole world but we want good roads in our country. Every Ghanaian including you and myself wants good things so we must be prepared to pay for it. Tolls if they come back gradually one way or the other. It will come in a different form.”
“We will no longer be paying the 50pessewas and 1 cedi. It will come but in different forms. If you go abroad, they pay heavy tolls that is why they are able to build good roads,” he said.