The Ministry of Roads and Highways and the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA) have warned that drivers who fail to pay road tolls, but are not on the exemption list, will be made to face the law.
A statement issued jointly by both institutions in Accra, which was signed by the Minister of Roads and Highways, Mr Kwesi Amoako-Atta, said it had come to the notice of both institutions that some drivers were refusing to either pay the road and bridges tolls or did not pay the prescribed amount.
“The Ministry of Roads and Highways, in collaboration with the GHA, wishes to inform the general public that all vehicles, with the exception of the category of motor vehicles exempted under the law, are required to fully pay the prescribed tolls on all toll roads/bridges nationwide,” the statement said.
Exemption list
Section 1 of the Tolls (Amendment) Act, 1999 (Act 570) provides that motor vehicles which belong to the Ghana Armed Forces; the Ghana Police Service; the Ghana National Fire Service; the Ghana Prisons Service; the Diplomatic Missions, on reciprocal basis; the government and mission hospitals and used as ambulances; and the Ghana Red Cross Society were the only categories exempted from paying tolls.
“All other vehicles do not qualify for exemption from the payment of tolls and are, therefore, required by the law to pay the prescribed road/bridge tolls,” the statement said.
It notified drivers that the penalty stipulated under Section 2 of the Tolls (Amendment) Act, 1999 for refusing to pay the applicable toll or entering a toll road, toll bridge or toll ferry without paying the prescribed toll was the payment of an amount which was 100 times the applicable toll.
Toll tickets
The ministry and GHA further advised motorists who were in the habit of throwing away toll tickets within the environs of the toll plazas or along the toll road/bridges to desist from such acts.
“Motorists are required and reminded to keep issued toll tickets/receipts as evidence of payment until they reach their final destination,” it said.
The statement warned that officials from the sector ministry, the GHA and the Ghana Police Service would monitor closely the toll plazas and undertake regular checks to ensure that the law was strictly enforced.
Meanwhile, a Citizen Reporter at Nsawam described the decision of the Minister of Roads and Highways, Mr Amoako-Atta, as a step in the right direction because some ministers including those driving cross-country vehicles and ambulances blatantly flout the payment of tolls at the tollbooths.
The reporter sited a case just last Saturday, when one of such motorists driving a Mitsubishi Pajero with registration number GR 2422-12 zoomed past the tollbooth on the Accra-Nsawam road.
He told the Daily Graphic he was in a tro-tro from Accra to Nsawam that was behind the vehicle and he later spotted the vehicle at Nsawam-Adoagyiri being driven by a respectable-looking man who he expected to be law-abiding.
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