Tanker Drivers in the country are angry at government for trying to take a unilateral decision to increase road tolls.
The fuel haulage drivers have vowed to resist the Ghana Road Fund and government’s plan to increase road tolls in the coming months.
They are questioning the justification for the tolls and have threatened to resist if government does not address the deplorable state of roads in the country.
This is because the Parliamentary Select Committee on Roads and Transport is said to have proposed an upward adjustment in road tolls.
The move is said to be aimed at addressing the Road Fund’s growing indebtedness and low funding for its activities since it faces possible collapse if serious and immediate steps are not taken.
Ghana Road Fund is reported to owe contractors more than GH¢700 million. The Fund was said to have also secured two loans from SSNIT – GH¢109 million and an additional GH¢85 million—which have accrued an interest of GH¢323 million.
But the Chairman of the National Petroleum Tanker Drivers Union, Mr William Adarkwa, speaking to DAILY GUIDE, noted that they are angry because they cannot understand why the Ghana Road Fund and the Parliamentary Select Committee on Roads and Transport are pushing for an increase without consulting the commercial drivers.
According to him, the government collects daily tolls without improving on roads in the country.
“The roads are not good so what are they taking the monies for? We can’t continue to pay the money when we are not sure of what they are using it for,” one of the aggrieved drivers said.
“They charge us based on axle daily, which is too much but we don’t see what they use the money for because most of our roads are in a deplorable state,” he added.
The National Tanker Drivers chairman warned, “If they increase the toll we will not pay anything unless we see improvement on our roads, especially the Accra-Tema Motorway which has become a death trap to road users.”
He added: “They deliberated on new tolls without engaging us, the drivers, in the discussion exercise. What they must know is that if they had engaged us, we would have come out with a fruitful deliberation that would be best for all of us.”
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