Accra, July 21, GNA - The Ghana Road Fund generated a total of 444.4 billion cedis between January and May 2006 out of the projected revenue of more than 502 billion cedis resulting in a shortfall of 57.6 billion cedis.

The main reason for the short fall could be traced to the shortfall in quantity of fuel lifted and the fact that road toll rates were not increased as expected.

Dr Richard Anane, Road Transport Minister, speaking in Parliament on Friday, said: "The fuel levy is the highest contributor to the fund and constitutes about 92 per cent to 95 per cent of the total road fund revenue in Ghana."

Dr Anane was responding to a question from Mr John Ndebugre, PNC-Zebilla, who wanted to find out about the history of the road sector development fund and its present status.

He mentioned vehicle registration fees, road, bridge and ferry tolls and international transit fees as other sources of revenue for the Fund.

He said there was the need to increase other sources of revenue to ensure that these sources contributed up to 10 per cent of the Fund. The Minister said the main objective for establishing the Fund in 1995, was to develop the local capacity to fund road maintenance on a sustainable basis.

He told the House that while the Fund helped to improve roads considerably, there were some problems encountered because the Fund could not generate adequate revenues to "meet road maintenance needs on a sustainable basis."

He said a policy was pu t in place to ensure that by 2002 the fuel levy would have systematically been increased from the 1996 level of 4.5 United States cents to 9.5 cents per litre. "At the end of 2002, due to inconsistent increment and the unstable cedi value, the actual level in real terms had dropped to 2.87 US cent. Government came out with a new policy on fuel levy in August 2003 to achieve the 2002 target of 9.5 US cent per litre by 2008." Dr Anane said at the end of 2005, the level had increased to 6.12 US cent in real terms."

The Minister gave some breakdowns and said as at 2002, the Fund had risen from over 414 billion cedis to 1.041 trillion cedis. He said there were some outstanding debts to be paid for road works and added that the "inability of the Fund to fully support road maintenance activities is largely due to the expanding network." He said the road network had increased from 38,071 kilometres in 2000 to 60,040 kilometres 2005 as a result of the need to open up the country.