Deputy Ranking Member of the Transport Committee in Parliament Issaka Yusif Jaja has denied widely publicised media report that the Parliament of Ghana has approved the implementation of the Towing Levy submitted by the Ministry of Transport for consideration.
Mr. Yusif Jaja who is also a Member of Parliament for Ayawaso North, on Onua FM’s morning show “Yen Nsem Pa” on Thursday indicated that Parliament is yet to approve the implementation of the Levy, and that they only gave recommendations to the Ministry of Transport and the service provider, after studying the contract which was signed in 2012 after meeting with the stakeholders in the transport sector.
“After studying the contract, we realized it would be difficult for us to make any amendment, and so we decided to make some recommendations and it behooves on the Minister to decide if he still wants to go ahead with the implementation, so we as a House have not approved any such levy as being peddled around”, he told Bright Kwesi Asempa, host of the “Yen Nsem Pa” show.
The recommendation, according to him, included a public sensitization campaign championed by the service provider, an engagement with the smaller towing companies in the country by the service provider in implementing the policy as well as a proposal to maintain a stable towing fee within the first years of the coming into being of the policy.
On the allocation of the revenues generated from the policy, the MP for Ayawaso North explained that, although the Law stipulates that 85% of the revenue should be given to the Service Provider with the remaining 15% going to the DVLA and the National Road Safety Commission, but they gave some recommendations with respect to that after studying contract.
“The Law states that, the service provider should get 85% and the remaining 15% should be shared among the DVLA and the National Road Safety Commission, but after looking at the contract we recommended that 2.5% should be deducted from the service provider’s share to the National Health Insurance Scheme and another 2.5% to the National Ambulance Service”, he explained.
He further added that Parliament would approve the Policy if the service provider convince them that the education of the policy has gone down well with the stakeholders, adding that the service provider must also provide the details of the small towing companies they have decided to engage together with the terms and conditions in the engagement.
“So those are some of the recommendations and feedbacks we are expecting from them, but as I speak with you, we as a house have not seen anything like that, so how can we sanction the approval of that document,” he asked
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