The government is looking forward to the passage of the Electronic Transaction Levy (E-Levy) to possibly securitize it to bring in greater revenue, according to Minister for Roads and Highways, Kwasi Amoako-Atta.
According to him, the government is considering the possibility of raising a bond using the E-levy to build the road sector infrastructure.
Mr. Amoako-Atta who responded to an urgent question on Friday in Parliament that stood in the name of MP for Adaklu, Kwame Agbodza, said government’s direction and policy is to bring in a better form of collection of the road toll because it is already built in the proposed e-levy.
He said, “The government in its wisdom has proposed the passage of the E-levy to bring in more revenue to build the road infrastructure for all of us.”
“So the government is looking forward to the passage of the E-levy that would bring in greater revenue that would be securitized to raise a bond to build the road sector infrastructure.”
“So government direction and government policy are to bring in a better form of the collection because the toll revenue is built in the proposed E-levy, that is why the government is determined to ensure that it is brought to being.”
The Adaklu MP had questioned the Roads Minister what the estimated loss of revenue to date is due to the cessation of collection of the Road and Bridge tolls as contained in the Ministry’s press release dated 17th November 2021.
According to Mr. Amoako-Atta, however, the decision to cease collection of the road toll had become necessary following the presentation of the 2022 Budget and that most road users refused to pay tolls at all locations throughout the country.
He averred that during the period there was confusion between road users and the collectors and in order to save lives and property at the toll locations, the directive was issued for suspension of the collection of the tolls.
He averred that with the approval of the Budget, effectively road tolls have been zero-rated and therefore there will be no revenue from the sector in 2022.
Source: Mypublisher24.com