The Gauteng province’s e-tolls are continuing to bill drivers and around 10% of motorists, mostly businesses, are still honorably paying their dues.
As talks draw out and the shutdown date keeps getting pushed forward, this small portion of compliant companies are eager to keep paying as in reality they are benefiting from the scheme, said the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) CEO Wayne Duvenage.
“Those that are paying don’t mind because the companies are making money out of the scheme, they charge administration fees to their customers, and they don’t apply the limit,” he told EWN.
Duvenage, who was the CEO of Avis from 2006 to 2012, was referring to rental car companies who are remaining cooperative as they are banking in on e-tolls.
Monthly e-toll bills for these businesses are capped per vehicle, however, the companies don’t cap the fees that they charge short-term customers who rent their cars.
“They also charge ‘admin fees’ on top of the e-toll charges. This might explain why they are not rushing to stop paying their e-tolls,” the Outa CEO told BusinessTech.
Duvenage implores rental and leasing companies to stop participating in e-tolls as the government has officially announced the end of the scheme.
Refunds in question
During the October 2022 medium-term budget speech, finance minister Enoch Godongwana announced that the Gauteng provincial government and national government agreed to contribute 30% and 70%, respectively, to service Sanral’s debt and interest obligations, which includes the controversial e-tolls.
At the time, Sanral received R23.7 billion from the national government for assistance in relieving the debt, which the agency called a “partial solution.” Since then, Sanral has also moved at least R2.2 billion from its non-toll road account to the GFIP ledger, said Outa.
Following the minister’s announcement, the Gauteng government took over the maintenance of the scheme and said that it would be shut down on 31 December 2022.
In January 2023, however, the tolling project was still operational and Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi revealed that a key issue delaying the shutdown was the decision on how to refund motorists that were diligently paying their accounts over the years.
“It’s clear we have to refund people. We will refund people who have paid. The outstanding debate is the manner in which they will be refunded,” the premier said.
The failed tolling project had a compliance rate of around 17% which comes to a total refund amount of approximately R6.9 billion – a “not insignificant sum,” said Lesufi. This is in addition to the R12 billion that the Gauteng government must now put toward the Sanral debt, which the province has requested to pay over a 20-year period.
Duvenage said it remains unclear whether the provincial government can even afford to refund e-toll users as Gauteng Finance MEC Jacob Mamabolo did not allocate any funds in the province’s budget to settle these debts.
Additionally, a Memorandum of Understanding between the provincial government and treasury, which will establish how much the separate parties owe, must still be finalised.
While the discussions are ongoing, Outa’s evidence points to the e-toll system continuing to operate and bill Gauteng residents.
Keyword: These businesses are still paying e-tolls – and they don’t want to stop