LPG, UPP support mandatory towing levy
The Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG) and the United Progressive Party (UPP) have described the mandatory towing levy as a national exercise worth giving the chance to succeed.
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They have called on Ghanaians, political parties and politicians to support the National Road Safety Commission to successfully implement the programme.
According to the two political parties, the exercise is not about the ‘disabled’ or stationary vehicles that are left unattended to on the roads but rather it is meant to prevent innocent roadworthy and good vehicles from running into disabled or stationary vehicles which results in loss of human lives.
The leaders of LPG, Mr Kofi Akpaloo and UPP, Mr Kwasi Addai Odike respectively, were sharing their respective parties’ views on the mandatory towing levy which has been approved by Parliament and waiting for implementation.
Diverse views
The Roads and Transport Committee of Parliament recently gave its backing to the implementation of the towing levy to be imposed on all vehicle owners.
The law which was to take effect from July 1, 2017, was suspended to enable the Transport Ministry to hold stakeholders engagements, following the public disapproval it received.
The National Road Safety Commission (NRSC) introduced the service in order to rid the country’s roads of broken-down vehicles that are abandoned and which cause accidents.
Many stakeholders, including transport and drivers unions, political parties and politicians and civil society organisations have expressed diverse opinions on the matter among which are the suggestions that payment of the levy should not be made mandatory and should not be contracted to only one private company.
One political party, the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), last week called on Ghanaians to resist any attempt by the government to impose what it calls “Mandatory Tow Levy”.
Under the mandatory towing regime, drivers whose cars break down on the road will be required to pay between from 20 to 200 cedis to RSML.
Section 21 of the Road Traffic Act-2004 (ACT 683) clearly spells out the penalty for leaving vehicles or trailers on our roads and in the view of the PPP, “Instead of enforcing the law, the government is rather charging Ghanaians to pay an extra levy.”
Hullabaloo must stop
But in the view of Mr Odike, founder and leader of UPP, “the exercise is not about whether your vehicle or car is good or not but it is about your good car running into a disabled vehicle left abandoned on the road.”
He said the concept, which is a good one, must be embraced because currently there is no structured national system in place to tow abandoned vehicles from the roads.
“It does not matter who has won the contract to run the service for the common good of the citizenry. After all, the company is an indigenous Ghanaian company and the dividend will stay in Ghana and help develop the country,” he argued.
“Let us support and see how the national operations will be carried out across the country and made effective and functional,” he postulated.
In his opinion, the hullabaloo must stop and premium rather placed on concentrating on the effectiveness of the implementation of the exercise.
Long overdue
Mr Kofi Akpaloo, founder and leader of LPG, for his part, was of the view that the towing system was long overdue and there was the need to do away with partisan politics and selfishness.
“We have lost precious lives on our roads because of the lack of such a structured system,” he stated, and therefore called for an intensified public education to get as many Ghanaians as possible to buy into the concept.
“I do not know what values we put on our lives, but if it has to do with curbing the menace and carnage on our roads, then we can no longer wait for another minute to implement the exercise,” he stated.
Advice to service providers
He also advised the service providers to work diligently when the exercise takes off in order to remove all ‘disabled’ or stationary vehicles to avoid carnage on our roads, saying, “Paying money is one thing and getting good services is another.”