Budget to break GPRTU's monopoly, clear over-aged vehicles

(The Statesman) --Barely two days after the NPP government took the decisive move to abrogate the technical and consultancy services agreement between Ghana Telecom and Telekom Malaysia, a major move to break the monopoly of the Ghana Private Roads Transport Union (GPRTU) in the transport sector will be announced in Parliament.

The Finance Minister Yaw Osafo-Maafo and his team have been working round the clock on the 2002 budget, and The Statesman can authoritatively report that from next week the collection of Vehicle Income Tax by only the GPRTU will be a thing of the past as other transport associations will also be given the opportunity to do so.

According to Budget Committee sources, the decision to break GPRTU’s monopoly follows complaints from both drivers and the general public about the way the collection of income tax has been handled.

The decision to break the monopoly will enable not only other transport association to participate in the collection, but also make it possible for accounting and other firms with the capacity to do so, to undertake the exercise, possibly by operating from the various lorry stations.

It can also be revealed that the 2002 budget will take a major step to fulfill the New Patriotic Party’s promise to scrap the law banning over 10-year-old vehicles from entering the country.

The NPP’s argument on the issues has been that if engines which run the vehicles can be allowed into the country no matter their age, then there is no justification for the continued ban on so-called “over-aged” vehicles, some of which look newer and stronger than those plying our streets. Indeed, there are indications that the present law allows vehicles, notably commercial ones to stay on the road dangerously longer.

Supporting this argument has been the cost involved in disposing of such vehicles. Under the current law, the state incurs heavy losses by spending ?446,000 stripping each vehicle for sale at ?200,000.

In his budget statement presented in March last year, Osafo-Marfo announced a three-month amnesty for the so-called over-aged vehicles. The end of the amnesty in May saw 448 of such vehicles being cleared from the Ports with the state coming out ?4.1 billion –?9.92 billion richer.

The budget itself will provide an opportunity for the government to triumphantly announce the success of its economic programme and the next stage of the government’s much lauded economic programme.

Campaigning for power in 2000, the NPP in its manifesto, “Agenda for Positive Change” promised: “the NPP government will initiate and implement policies to deal with the eight major interrelated problems facing the Ghanaian economy today. These are slow growth, high unemployment, increased incidence of rural and urban poverty, high inflation rates, excessive government debt and fiscal deficit, the ever-declining value of the cedi and the narrow and unstable base of the country. The NPP believes that economic growth and increased employment for our people will depend largely on finding solutions to these problems.”

After one year of managing the economy, the government has succeeded in lowering inflation from 41 per cent in January to 21 per cent, interest rates have fallen from 51 per to 32 per cent. Most notably, the government has succeeded in stabilizing the cedi with a 2.5 per cent fall last year compared to over 90 per cent fall the year before.

“One year into government the Agenda for Positive Change outlined by the NPP in its manifesto, is on course as the economic indicators and indeed the realities show,” said Information and Presidential Affairs Minister, Jake Obetsebi Lamptey in the recently outdoored book, “Positive Change. A good beginning.” The 80-page book catalogues the achievement and challenges of the NPP government in its first year in office.