Reintroduction of Toll gates: Minister allays fear of revenue leakage

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*Says collection to take place electronically

  • Toll collection will not start until the roads are motorable – Says Fashola

(Report by Udeme Clement):

The Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola (SAN), has made clarification on approval granted by the Federal Executive Council (FEC), for reintroduction of toll gates across the country.

The Minister spoke sequel to the FEC meeting, presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The Minister allays fear of revenue leakage, explaining that the toll collection will be carried out electronically at all designated points.

This, he said, becomes imperative for accurate collection of revenue for the Federal Government, in order to ensure that the policy is effectively implemented to achieve the intended purpose.

The Minister stated emphatically that
toll collection exercise will not commence until the roads are motorable, even as he said that government is working tirelessly to put the roads in good shape.

He said the revenue that will be realised from toll gates, will actually be used to maintain the roads, construct new ones; and pay investors building or completing new roads, and a concession will be taken on it accordingly.

Fashola, also pointed out that only dual carriage ways are eligible for toll collection when implementation begins.

His explanation :
“The Council approved that only dual carriage ways out of the 35000km of road should be eligible for toll collection by government.
The dual carriage ways represent only 5,050km out of 35,000km.

“Open – tolling system will be adopted as opposed to closed tolling policy.
The open – tolling policy is not new. It is what we are used to. This implies that you pay tolls at barrier over a fixed or pre-determined distance.
The closed – tolling system means you pay tolls over a distance you travel and the size of your vehicle.
The closed – tolling system is new because we have not operated it here before. So, we are simply going back to a system we are used to.

“It was also proposed and the Councill approved that certain types of vehicles be exempted from paying tolls. Those include bicycles, tricycles, motorcycles and modes of two or three wheeled transport used mainly by disadvantaged members in the community.
These categories will be entitled to 100 per cent exemption, as well as diplomatic vehicles, Military and Paramilitary vehicles.”

More so, the new policy stipulates that private cars, SUVs, private buses, commercial buses, luxury buses and trucks will pay about N200, N300, and N500 accordingly.

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