The Vice President of the policy think tank IMANI Ghana has described moves by the National Road Safety Commission to impose a compulsory towing levy on vehicle owners as senseless.
In a skype interview on Tv3’s Midday Live, Kofi Bentil said, “So many different things cause accidents. Parked, abandoned vehicles are one of those things and I don’t think they must be spending all their time trying to tax everybody in this country to give to one person so that they would tow across Ghana. It simply doesn’t make sense.”
He has challenged claims that most road accidents in the country are caused by broken down vehicles abandoned roads for which reason the government wants to introduce a tow levy to solve the problem . He demanded to see the research that corroborates the claims.
“I’m yet to see the source data by which they concluded that almost half of all accidents in this country are due to stationary vehicles. I don’t believe it but as I researcher I would like to see the data first and make an emphatic comment”.
He argues that a tow levy in itself is not a panacea for the problem of road accidents. He mentioned that the absence of street lights on roads is a major cause of road accidents yet no attention is paid to that, even though there is a street light fee.
He argued, “There is a difference between towing and tow levy. Collecting money for a problem does not guarantee they’ll be solved. We collect levies for street lights in this country, we don’t have street lights. We collect road toll levies, we don’t have good roads”.
Kofi Bentil suggested that the implementation of existing laws that allow abandoned broken down vehicles to be towed and the offenders punished is the best way to rid the roads of broken down vehicles.
He explains, “The suggestion is to enforce present laws and by the way whether they use one company or many companies, it’s a bad idea to institute a road tow levy.”
He added that the Highways Authority, the police and the local assemblies owe the people of Ghana a duty to tow any broken down vehicle abandoned on the road
He again called out the company at the centre of the project and accused it of scheming to amass wealth. He charged the Road Safty Commission to do its job and stop profiteering from crisis.
Bright Simons, a member of IMANI, had earlier in the day issued a 32 pointer statement explaining the details of the tow levy and raising some concerns about the inconveniences and impropriety of the levy.
Meanwhile, COPEC and some other civil society groups have charged Ghanaians to kick against the levy because they believe the levy will not solve the problem of road accidents.
The National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) introduced the service in order to rid the country’s roads of broken down vehicles that are abandoned on the roads which cause accidents. As part of the law, vehicle owners and motorcyclists will pay compulsory annual fees, tied to the acquisition of road worthy certificate, to cater for towing services. Fees per year for both commercial and non-commercial vehicles, depending on tonnage, range from Ȼ20 to Ȼ 200.
The NRSC awarded the contract to the Road Safety Management Limited (RSML) a subsidiary of the Jospong Group owned by businessman Joseph Siaw Agyapong.
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