Leaders of the group said compulsory towing levy, which Ghanaians strongly repulsed and forced the government to abort in 2017 is being smuggled behind veils with new euphemistic excuses.
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Review road tolls: Ghanaians are tired of taxation without transparency - Economic Fighters League
The Economic Fighters League has rejected the decision by the government to increase road tolls and reintroduce the compulsory towing levy.
Toll booth
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The newly imposed taxes announced in the 2021 budget are already set to weigh effect on the people of Ghana from May 1, 2021.
"The people of Ghana are already saddled with the heightening cost of construction materials, food, electricity bills, water bills, cost of domestic house rents among many other basics. As always, it is the people who have and continued to suffer most," the group said in a statement.
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Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, has said the government will review existing road tolls and align them with current market rates to ensure improvement on the roads.
That, he said, would form part of the framework for promoting burden-sharing as the government sought to transform the road and infrastructure sector in a post-COVID-19 era.
Presenting the 2021 Budget Statement and Economic Policy, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, also the Caretaker Finance Minister stated that the government would also amend the fees (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 2018 (Act 983) that governed the setting of Rates and Tolls to accommodate an automatic annual adjustment that would be pegged at 2020's average annual inflation.
"This year, the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) would intensify audits and institute measures to recover all outstanding debts and enforce collections in the extractive industry," he said.
Economic Fighters League rejects tax
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But the Economic Fighters League said: "Ghanaians are tired of taxation without transparency and value for money."
A statement issued by Fighter-General, Hardi Yakubu, said "It is unintelligible and reductive for the government to seek to suggest that the introduction of more taxes or increasing the rates of existing taxes is the solution to road accidents when the state is currently spending national funds some of the most expensive roads in Africa yet delivering some of the most poorly built roads. An increase in expenditure cannot be considered proportional to safety when national resources are constantly diverted to private hands.
He added: "We at Fighters and other well-meaning Ghanaians are skeptical of the commitment of current and past administrations to curb road accidents and to improve road infrastructure. Our reasons are easily found in their track records of the vicious stealing from the public purse as captured in the wrongfully removed Auditor-General's reports.
"We will support any serious move to recover stolen money as surcharged by the Auditor-General's annual reports as an effort to identify the funds required to execute the stated tasks, rather than allow ourselves to be further taxed on non-delivery, another extraction measure without transparency, accountability, and value for money."
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