The Cross River state government is to introduce the collection of toll on its roads before the end of the year.
A bill to this effect is already before the state House of Assembly.
Director-general of the State Road Maintenance Agency (RMA), Hon Tom Agi, told newsmen in Calabar, ‘‘arrangements are under way by the Agency to collect toll from road users in Cross River State before the end of the year. It will take effect as soon as the State House of Assembly passes the enabling law on Road Maintenance Agency in the state’’.
Agi stated that once the law was passed it would become mandatory for everyone plying any road in any part of the state to pay a toll because the government had gone to great length to source for funds to repair most roads in the state.
He lamented that the ‘‘agency has to wait for long before funds were released for road intervention and reconstruction of drains in the central and northern senatorial districts of the state.”
According to him, ‘‘the agency whose major challenge is funds should be able to generate income to supplement its allocation. The passage of the enabling law to empower the agency to collect road maintenance levy will help boost the revenue base of the government”, he added.
The RMA boss therefore, appealed to members of the House of Assembly to facilitate the passage of the bill.
?