Tow levy approved

Parliament's Roads and Transport Committee has approved the controversial road tow levy to begin operating from September 1, 2017.

According to the Chairman of the Committee, Mr Samuel Ayeh-Paye, the decision was arrived at after extensive consultations with stakeholders in the road and transport industry.

This follows the passage of a Legislative Instrument (LI) on the road tow levy.

Speaking to Class News on Tuesday, 1 August 2017, Mr Ayeh-Paye urged the Ministry to sensitise the populace on the levy before its implementation.

“Our recommendation is that it is a very good project, we have looked at other stakeholders and in fact they don’t have the capacity to undertake this project. …We have asked the operator as part of our recommendation to absorb other small towing trucks in the contract so that other private and small towing truck services will not be affected or have their businesses collapsed,” he stated.

He noted that the contract involves general road safety management which includes clearing trees that block roads and several other road safety measures.

Government had proposed a fee of between GHS40 and GHS100 on the registration of vehicles or renewal of road worthiness certificates at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) to fund the policy.