By Inusa Musah
Kwame Kodua Atuahene, Communications Manager for the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) is courting motorists to support the new Towing Levy to help remove disabled vehicles from the roads and to curb the carnage on Ghana’s roads.
On Tuesday, the Roads and Transport Committee of Parliament recommended the passage of the Towing Levy, which implementation was suspended last month by the Ministry of Transport, after some Ghanaians, including identifiable organisations such as IMANI, Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC) and the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU), expressed their abhorrence.
Under the National Towing Project, owners of motorcycles will pay GH¢10 per year, cars with engine capacity less than 2,000CC (less than 2.0) will pay GH¢40, buses and passenger commercial vehicles will pay GH¢80, while articulated trucks will pay between GH¢80 and GH¢100 annually.
Motorists whose vehicles break down on the main road would be required to call a toll free number and within an hour, a towing vehicle would arrive to tow the vehicle away. It will take within two hours after the call is placed for vehicles which breakdown on highways to be towed.
In this regard, Kwame Kodua Atuahene has urged the general public to hasten slowly, explaining that: “Parliament has requested that a biannual performance report on the operations should be submitted through the Minister for Transport for probity and accountability.”
He explained that the recommendation from the Committee on Roads and Transport showed how important the need for the implementation of the Towing levy is, “as it will help curb the carnage on Ghana’s roads.”
In supporting the recommendation by Parliament, the NRSC Communications Manager said it would help Ghanaians to be positive about the future, adding that the project had gone through all the necessary benchmarks as provided by the law.
Kwame Kodua Atuahene said: “The government may not have the resources to deal with the problem hence the participation of the private sector, although it comes with a cost.”
Per the committee’s recommendation, the NRSC is hopeful that the various stakeholders would do the necessary consultation and education so that the confusion surrounding the implementation of the policy would be put to rest.
In this regard, Mr. Atuahene entreated the public to comply with the new regulation in order to reduce the number of road crashes caused by abandoned vehicles.
The controversial Towing Levy was to take effect from July 1, 2017, but it was suspended by the Transport Ministry, following public outcry to allow for more consultations before its implementation.
The Roads and Transport Committee of Parliament, upon consultations with the implementers of the project, Road Safety Management Limited (RSML), announced Tuesday that it had given the green light for implementation to begin in September 2017.
The Committee explained that abrogating the contract, which was signed with RSML in 2016, would result in judgment debt to the country.
The Committee reached an agreement with RSML to cede five per cent of its 85 percent of its share of charges to the National Health Authority (NHA) and the National Ambulance Service (NAS).
Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) and Ghana Police Service (GPS) will each take five percent of each while the Ministry of Finance and the NRSC will also be allocated 2.5 percent each from the proceeds.
By Inusa Musah Kwame Kodua Atuahene, Communications Manager for the National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) is courting motorists to support the new Towing Levy to help remove disabled vehicles from the roads and to curb the carnage on Ghana’s roads. On Tuesday, the Roads and Transport Committee of Parliament recommended the passage of the […] Read Full Story
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