The 2016 flag-bearer of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, has described the mandatory tow levy as a “lazy thinking” which shouldn’t have been conceived at all.

He said the Road Traffic Act empowers the District Assemblies to tow vehicles away from the roads and streets and levy a fine.

“Instead of seeing [to it] that this is administered and implemented, we push that one away and go and put in some regulation there that creates this global thing that everybody who comes to register a vehicle pay a levy, and then let’s go and get one company to come and clear the roads and that will solve the problem… Lazy thinking, laziness of the mind,” he lamented on Tuesday, August 22.

He said the police exist to supervise the removal of broken-down vehicles, and even though the police must have some towing vehicles, there are private entities that can benefit from undertaking towing services and the cost paid by the driver of the vehicle that has broken down.

He explained that in other jurisdictions, there is a time limit and if broken-down vehicles remain on the roads, authorities remove the vehicles and impound the car and the owners pay a penalty which generates additional revenue for the state.

He does not understand why legislators will, therefore, fail to think creatively and make all vehicle owners pay for the crimes of some few miscreants.

“Those who commit the crime or wrong must pay for it,” he added in an interview with Joy FM.

Government has canceled the mandatory towing levy after a section of Ghanaians strongly opposed its implementation.

The policy would have imposed a mandatory fee between GHS 20 and GHS 200 on all vehicle owners in the country.

This was to help a towing company tow broken-down vehicles from the roads across the country to help ensure traffic safety and reduce accidents.