By Val Amanze
Nigerians should brace up for more taxes as the Federal Government on Wednesday said that plans were at the advanced stage to return toll gates on the federal highways.
Toll fee, a form of road tax, was abolished during the presidency of Olusegun Obasanjo when the pump prices of petroleum products were increased.
Fashola disclosed this while briefing State House Correspondents after the Federal Executive Council (FEC), meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Council Chamber, Presidential Villa Abuja.
Fashola, flanked by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said there was no law that stopped the government from having toll gates on federal roads.
He said, “There is no reason why we can’t toll, there was a policy of government to abolish tolls or as it were, dismantle toll plazas but there is no law that prohibits tolling in Nigeria today.
“We expect to return toll plazas. We have concluded designs of what they will look like, what materials they will be rebuilt with, what new considerations must go into them.
“What we are looking at now and trying to conclude is how the back end runs.”
He said that government was also considering to eliminate payment of cash by introducing electronic mode of payment.
The Minister further disclosed that government needed to acquire more lands to expand the width of the toll gates as it proposed to have a ten lane.
Details later
