The Treasury has warned motorists that the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) still has an obligation to collect money from e-tolls until all legal processes have been concluded to do away with the system.
This was communicated through a media statement meant to provide clarification on the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP), commonly known as e-tolls, following government’s commitment last week that it will take over the existing debt and associated obligations of Sanral.
Finance Minister Enoch Godonwana used the medium-term budget policy statement last week to announce that the e-tolls in Gauteng will soon be a thing of the past.
“Uncertainty surrounding the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project continues to have a major negative implication for road construction in the country. We need to move on from the debates of previous years and find solutions to this challenge,” Godongwana said at the time.
“To resolve the funding impasse, the Gauteng provincial government has agreed to contribute 30% to settling Sanral’s debt and interest obligations while [the] national government covers 70%.”
In a statement to clarify, the National Treasury said Sanral is sitting with R47-billion debt relating to GFIP. However, the department said consultations are under way and people should not expect the system to be abolished overnight.
“The option to utilise the existing toll mechanism remains open and would result in the toll network proclamation remaining in place,” the statement read.
“If the province’s provision for maintenance of the network is financed through other revenue streams within its area of responsibility, the processes on undeclaring the toll network, in terms of section 27 (1) of the South African National Roads Agency Limited and National Roads Act (Act 7 of 1998) will need to be undertaken.
“This notwithstanding, all necessary statutory and regulatory processes that must take place to give effect to the minister of finance’s announcement are under way, including consultation with relevant stakeholders.
“Until a notice in the government gazette is issued, Sanral has a statutory obligation to collect any toll fees due to them.”
However, the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa), which has led the charge against e-tolls for more than a decade, said government’s numbers do not add up.
“We believe that the numbers that are being presented by Treasury and Sanral are wrong. The GFIP debt is not R43-billion,” said Outa CEO Wayne Duvenage.
“Even if Sanral did not settle R1 of the initial capital debt or the interest accrued, a bond of R20-billion over the past 12 years at 10% interest will not amount to more than R33-billion. The question we need answering is: what has Sanral done with the government grants received for GFIP over the last decade?”
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