Time for e-tolls to be buried, says AA
Reports now suggest that payment levels are below 18%, less than half of the reported high compliance rate of 40% in 2014.
Should the government decide to scrap the e-toll system, it must also reimburse those who have been paying all these years as well as cancel outstanding debts, the Automobile Association (AA) has said.
After years of delays, the government is finally expected to announce the future of e-tolls in Gauteng during finance minister Enoch Godongwana’s medium-term budget policy statement in late October.
The association said that Godongwana must scrap the system “once and for all”.
“Continuing with e-tolls, in whatever form, will yield the same poor results and will further harden people’s views on a failing system,” it said.
Since its introduction in December 2013, the payment of e-tolls for the Gauteng freeway improvement project (GFIP) has been a contentious issue with many motorists in the province refusing to pay.
They asserted that government must fund the GFIP through other means, possibly through some of the revenue collected through the general fuel levy.
“In our meeting with transport minister Fikile Mbalula in August 2019, he indicated that a decision on the future of e-tolls would be forthcoming the following March. This never materialised and several dates put forward by him to clarify the future of e-tolls have since come and gone. In June this year, he indicated that Godongwana would clarify the future of e-tolls in his medium-term budget policy statement, a date we trust will be kept.”
The association said that delays in announcing e-tolls caused confusion and contributed to more people refusing to pay.
It is believed that people who continued to pay e-tolls have since stopped.
Reports now suggest that payment compliance levels are below 18%, less than half of the reported high compliance rate of 40% in 2014.
“If the government keeps the current system in place, it is doomed to fail,” the AA said.
“Our position is clear: the government must allocate funds from existing revenue channels rather than continue to turn to already embattled motorists to finance the system.
“Motorists correctly question government spending in many areas including, for instance, huge salaries and bonuses to executives at poorly run state-owned enterprises, while they are being asked time and again to make contributions on top of the taxes they are already paying.”
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