General News of Friday, 4 August 2017

Source: yen.com.gh

PPP calls on Ghanaians to stand against new mandatory towing levy

Murtala Mohammed Murtala Mohammed

The Progressive People’s Party (PPP) has taken a swipe at government for passing a law to enforce the new ‘Mandatory Tow Levy’ on Ghanaians.

According to them, this is a ‘lackadaisical attitude’ to solve problems and Ghanaians should fight against it.

In a statement signed the secretary of the party, Murtala Mohammed, PPP said:

“We cannot continue to sit aloof and watch while successive governments continue to milk the state with impunity under the guise of parliamentary approval. What happened to consultation of the people? The party finds it absolutely preposterous that the law enjoins us to engage the services of only one company – “Road Safety Management Company Limited.”

The PPP noted that there were already laws and policies in place to effectively manage the towing systems on our roads, but government is rather finding other means to solve a problem which already has its solution.

“On what basis did the government and Parliament of Ghana come to the conclusion that, that particular company is the only company in the world that can deliver towing services to Ghana?

The district assemblies must contract their own towing companies and collect the approved fees to pay those contractors from fines imposed on offenders.

This is not difficult to do and if the government cannot enforce this simple solution, then we will not pay – YENTUA,” the statement added.

The PPP’s statement was in response to Parliament’s implementation of a controversial law devised as a means to decongest the streets of hazardous broken down vehicles.

The piece of legislation had originally been scheduled to come into effect as of the 1st of July, 2017, but was suspended due to the fact that it received staunch disapproval from the general public. Meanwhile, the Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG) has warned government to not enforce the mandatory towing levy on citizens.

According to the group, rather than force the ‘inhumane’ towing levy on Ghanaians, government should ensure the actual road laws already in place are strictly observed.