Automating toll booths will enhance revenue generation for government, Eric Amponsah Boateng, a tax consultant, has said.
The Minister nominee for Roads and Highways, Kwasi Amoako-Attah, has promised to ensure the automation of all toll booths in the country, in order that there would be accountability for the revenues collected.
Mr. Boateng lauded the Minister-nominee’s reasoning, noting that with the automated collection of tolls, there isn’t any opportunity for anybody to siphon the income that belongs to the state.
This would ultimately improve Ghana’s revenue, the tax consultant explained, using the Kasoa toll booth as an example.
“When the Kasoa toll booth was automated and also that of the motorway, we were made to understand that the revenue increased by about three times. So for me, once you toll a road and get it automated, you are going to get an increase in the generation of revenue which is paid into the consolidated account.”
Roads that have very heavy vehicular traffic are roads that we normally toll, and it is best to automate them, Mr. Boateng said, adding that it would not be advisable to toll roads in the centre of towns or cities.
“If you are going to toll roads right in the middle of the city, vehicles will have to queue for a very long time before they go past that toll booth… I don’t think that it will be proper to toll a road right in the city centre.”
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)
