Sanral discount scheme widely seen as a failure
THE South African National Roads Agency Limited’s (Sanral’s) reluctance to reveal how much revenue it collected during the 60% discount period for historic electronic tolling has been taken as a sign that the initiative may have been a flop.
Motorists in Gauteng had until yesterday to take advantage of the discount offered for e-toll debt racked up between December 2013 and August last year.
Sanral said yesterday it was still crunching the figures and could not provide “definitive numbers” on the success of the special dispensation, but Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse chairman Wayne Duvenage said he found it strange that the roads agency was still trying to calculate takings when all the relevant information was collected electronically.
Mr Duvenage alleged that Sanral was sitting on the information to figure out a way to “spin the story”, as credit ratings agencies were watching.
Justice Project SA chairman Howard Dembovsky said it could be inferred that Sanral was keeping the figures a secret because the special dispensation had not been a success.
Sanral is owed nearly R6bn in historic e-toll debt. Companies that own large fleets account for 17% of defaulters whose total outstanding debt makes up 81% of unpaid fees.
Sanral spokesman Vusi Mona said they would share the figures once they were available.
“We are still calculating and collating information, and this will take time in order to be accurate. We cannot, at this stage, give out exact figures on the number of people who have used the 60% discount and settled their accounts,” said Mr Mona.
He reiterated Sanral’s obligation to the state and the “1.5-million compliant users” to collect all the money owed to the agency.
In February, five of the top 20 dodgers, who owe R5m-R26m, agreed to pay their outstanding fees, according to Electronic Toll Collection, the company that collects the e-toll on behalf of Sanral.
The company refused to divulge details about the discount takings and referred queries to Sanral.
Mr Duvenage said that Sanral’s statements about 300,000 motorists taking up the discount meant the system had failed.
“Anything less than 1-million people coming on board and R3bn in collections of the historic debt would be a failure ... because you need 80% compliance for this user-pay scheme.”