For a successful federal tolling policy

Collection /payment at approved toll gates was chosen and applied to the Lagos – Ibadan expressway as well as the ones constructed after it e.g. Kano – Kaduna – Abuja, Shagamu – Benin and Port Harcourt – Enugu expressways. For a decade and a half toll collection was undertaken by staff of the ministry of […]

Collection /payment at approved toll gates was chosen and applied to the Lagos – Ibadan expressway as well as the ones constructed after it e.g. Kano – Kaduna – Abuja, Shagamu – Benin and Port Harcourt – Enugu expressways. For a decade and a half toll collection was undertaken by staff of the ministry of works posted to the various toll gates. This was a veritable recipe for corruption and in-fighting among staff jostling for posting to the lucrative toll gates. General Abacha’s regime outsourced toll collection, awarding it to his cronies.
President Obasanjo abolished tolls on federal highways and quixotically destroyed tollgate facilities. He intended to replace toll with a fuel tax or surcharge, which was suspended after stiff public resistance.
Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (Amendment) Act 2007 however provides for a 5% fuel user charge to fund the agency’s activities. Actual collection is however yet to commence.
Current plans for the articulation of tolling policy for federal roads and bridges are therefore welcome. It is submitted that the need is for a simple system of revenue / toll collection that minimises the chance for fraud. Towards that end, it is recommended as follows:
(1 ) The fuel user charge approved for FERMA should be withdrawn. In its place a new tax of N5 flat on each litre of PMS (petrol) and of diesel should be charged and incorporated into the sale prices of these products.
(2)The N5 tax on petrol should be for state governments and that on diesel should accrue to the federal government. Local government councils are be specifically excluded from this arrangement. State governments’ share of the tax should be distributed among them on the basis of equality, to be appropriated specifically for road construction and maintenance.
(3) Revenue accruable to the federal government from the tax should also be appropriated solely and wholly for the same purpose. It is additional to provision from the regular budget not replacement. FERMA should receive funding for its administration from the regular budget. To avoid misapplication the funds so collected should be domiciled with the ministry of finance and released only in response to specific requests.
(4) The recommendation for states to have specific share of the proposed road tax is to pre-empt unilateral actions on the part of state governments in this regard. Already three states, Cross River, Edo and Lagos, have each enacted a form of road tax in one guise or another. If this catches on, other states may follow suit. The result of such copy-cat action will be anarchy in tax administration, and constitute a restraint on interstate commerce and increase cost of doing business.
These suggestions could aid consi-deration of a new policy on road tolling to ensure regular and increased funding for road construction and maintenance across the country.

Mohammed Tukur Usman, Kaduna, <[email protected]>;