Egis road operation, a French firm, the company contracted to maintain the Entebbe express highway, has said that the government of Uganda has collected 34 billion Uganda shillings in its first year of collecting money from the various tolls on the Entebbe Express Highway.
At the beginning of last year, the government awarded a contract to Egis road operation, to start collecting money from various tolls on the Entebbe express highway with an intention of paying back the loan of over $300 Million borrowed from Exim bank from China. This is the money that was used to construct this road.
The fees charged vary from motorcycles to vehicles and are charged daily upon the use of this road. Motorcycles, have to pay a fee of 3000 shillings daily, light vehicles have to pay 5000 Shillings, medium-sized vehicles pay 10,000 shillings, and large goods vehicles pay 18000 shillings daily to use this road. There are also some discounts given to daily road users upon return trips as well.
The idea of road tolls is not new or only unique to Uganda because it has been seen in other countries as well. This is how they work; a government of a given country decides to borrow money to build a road and upon completion, it puts road tolls on this road to collect money from people who use this road so that it can use this money to pay back the loan.
In the 1990s, there used to be road tolls along Masaka – Kampala highway in Lukaya and also at Mbiko along Jinja road. However as time passed by, the government removed these tolls so passengers could use the roads without paying a single penny.
The Entebbe express highway is the latest road to have road tolls and according to the executive director of Uganda National Roads Authority (UNRA), Allen Kagina, part of the money will be used for road maintenance.
Many Ugandans have received this news with mixed feelings, with others asking themselves where the money that they pay through taxes goes. I mean if the government collects taxes from citizens on the promise that it shall extend better social services such as education, health care, and good transportation inclusive, then why do they have to pay road toll fees again? Isn’t this double taxation of the citizens? Well, we wait to see how the next year will be in terms of collecting toll fees from the Express highway.
The government of Uganda can close the gaps through which money is wasted. These include the massive corruption scandals that have derailed development in this country. If taxes are used well – to do what they are meant to, then these toll fees are not even needed on our roads, simply because everything is worked out well.
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