Carrot of lower e-toll tariffs and caps balanced with licence-renewal stick

20th May 2015

By: Terence Creamer

Creamer Media Editor

  

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Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a “new dispensation” for the administration of the unpopular electronic tolling (e-toll) system currently in place on Gauteng’s motorways. The dispensation included the carrot of lower tariffs and monthly caps balanced with the enforcement stick of linking payment to the yearly renewal of car licences.

The new regime, which was immediately criticised by e-toll opponents, would be introduced in stages over the coming two to three months and would require legislative and regulatory changes to facilitate implementation.

It also had implications for national and Gauteng finances, with the lower tariffs and monthly cap of R225 for light vehicles to result in a yearly revenue shortfall of R390-million – the tariff for light vehicles has been reduced to 30c/km from 58c/km.

The cost shortfall, which did not include other revenue losses arising since the delayed and stilted inception of the scheme, would be “shared” between the national and Gauteng governments, with Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene indicating that he would approach Parliament soon with a new Appropriations Bill.

This would be in additional to the R5.7-billion already directed towards South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral), following delays to the implementation of the scheme.

Nene indicated that the overall Gauteng-motorways shortfall faced by Sanral was in the region of between R600-million and R700-million. But he argued that the resolution of the payment model should restore Sanral’s credibility in the capital markets and enable it to resume bond issuances.

Transport Minister Dipuo Peters indicated that the legislation linking toll payment to licence-disc renewals would be prepared as part of proposed amendments to the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (AARTO) Act, which was being used so as to decriminalise the nonpayment of toll fees.

The dispensation also catered for a 60% discount on outstanding e-toll fees dating back to December 2013 and capped monthly debt penalties at R450 a month. Those in arrears had six months in which to settle outstanding payments.

Ramaphosa said that the implementation timeframe would depend on the progress of legal and regulatory processes.

OPPOSITION REMAINS

But even the revised scheme looked set to face resistance.

Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance’s Wayne Duvenage said the changes could not disguise the reality that e-tolling remained cumbersome and expensive to administer when compared with a fuel levy.

“Why do you want to go down this road when, if you had had a 10c/l fuel levy back in 2007 when this project was started, we would already have paid for the capital expense?” he questioned in a radio interview, describing the decision to sustain the unpopular system as “farcical”.

For a user-pay system to work, Duvenage argued, compliance levels needed to rise to between 80% and 90%. But he forecast that compliance levels would remain well below that level in Gauteng even after the revisions and even in the face of “coercion”.

Where e-toll systems worked internationally there was not only high levels of compliance, but there was also no way of circumventing the system by “buying false number plates”. Good public-transport alternatives were also in place, Duvenage said.

On his Twitter account Duvenage later added that the new e-toll dispensation was tantamount to "putting lipstick on a pig”.

He said citizens would not be seduced or coerced by the “grossly irrational” scheme.

Congress of South African Trade Unions former general-secretary Zwelinzima Vavi immediately raised the prospect of legal action against “using car licenses to force us to pay e-tolls”, while the opposition Democratic Alliance said that “between e-tolls and load-shedding the ANC have created a potent job-killing recipe for Gauteng”.

But Ramaphosa described the changes as “far-reaching”, saying they were designed to encourage compliance rather than to threaten enforcement. He argued, too, that it was “fair and affordable”.

“The new dispensation demonstrated that we are both a responsive and responsible government,” Ramaphosa added, stressing that the advisory panel had drawn heavily on the recommendations of the advisory panel appointed by Gauteng Premier David Makhura in July 2014.

The panel endorsed the user-pay principle, but found that the e-toll system was placing a disproportionate financial burden on low- and middle-income households. It, therefore, suggested a hybrid payment solution, whereby only a portion of the capital, maintenance and interests costs would be covered through tolls.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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