Government officials will not be exempted from paying road tolls in a new open tolling policy approved by the Federal Executive Council.

The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola made the declaration on Wednesday while briefing state house correspondents at the end of the FEC meeting.

While the open tolling system will not begin immediately, Fashola revealed that the framework for the broad policy was adopted at the meeting.

The policy, he explained, will guide the new tolling system so that local people, states and local governments, as well as all those who manage roads and interested investors, will understand the nation’s tolling policy.

The Minister for Information, Lai Mohammed, having a conversation with the Minister for Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola during Wednesday’s FEC.

Mr Fashola further hinted that after wide consultations with various sectors including the National Assembly, only diplomats and military and paramilitary officials would be exempted from the electronic toll collection on the dual carriageways pronounced eligible for tolling by the Federal Government.

According to him, the council equally proposed that bicycles, pedal cycles, tricycles, motorcycles, and other two or three-wheeled means of transport used mainly by disadvantaged members of the community, will be entitled to a full 100% exemption.

Picture: Toll gate