Patrick Asuming, a professor at the University of Ghana Business School, has argued that the e-levy should be abolished, irrespective of whether road tolls are reintroduced. He criticized the e-levy as a harmful tax.
Prof. Asuming also voiced concerns about the government’s motives for potentially reinstating road tolls.
He noted that the government had previously made similar statements about reintroducing abolished levies, which did not materialize, leading to his doubts about 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 plans to reintroduce road tolls after they were discontinued in 2021. Finance Minister Dr. Mohammed Amin Adams announced that Cabinet has approved a framework to facilitate the reintroduction of the tolls in 2025.
He made this announcement during the mid-year budget review presentation in Parliament on Tuesday, July 23.
In June of this year, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer, Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, stated that road tolls should be reintroduced to enhance the country’s road infrastructure.
He highlighted that the government currently lacks sufficient funding for infrastructure development and suggested that innovative solutions, such as road tolling, could be effective.
“Let us revert to a system of broad-based road tolls. The tolling system needs to return, and I believe it will,” he said.
“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.
The government canceled road toll collections in 2021, claiming that the introduction of the e-levy would serve as a substitute. However, the e-levy has not met expectations, leading the government to plan to reintroduce road tolls in 2025.
