First part of new e-toll dispensation to start

 

Johannesburg - The first part of the new dispensation on e-tolls, announced by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa in May, will come into effect on Thursday, the SA National Road Agency Limited (Sanral) said. New and lowered toll tariffs for non-registered and non e-tag users, as well as lowered monthly caps for registered users, would come into effect on July 2. 

"Government listened to the concerns of lower- and middle income communities about the impact of transport costs on their budgets, and responded by reducing the tariffs," spokesperson Vusi Mona said. There are still organisations, opposition parties and unions which were opposed to the news dispensation.

Earlier this month, Outa claimed that the government “continue[d] to thrust an unjust, irrational and unworkable scheme onto the public, by using carrots of hollow discounts and threats of withholding vehicle licences to coerce the public to comply". However, Sanral has said the public must not be misled by organisations criticising the newly gazetted e-toll dispensation. Account holders ‘to benefit’ Mona said account holders were the first to benefit from the new dispensation, with reduced tariffs per kilometre and monthly caps on all classes of vehicles. The monthly cap for Sanral account holders would now be R225, down from R450 per month.

Mona said the introduction of the lowered standard tariff, which was now the same as the e-tag tariff, would provide relief to motorists who were not registered.

"We remind road users that all aspects of the new dispensation on the Gauteng e-roads will take place over the next 18 months."

Sanral was working with the transport department to implement the new dispensation, which needed software and operational changes. The relief announced for road users that do not have a Sanral account would become applicable once changes had been made to the system. New caps The implementation of the 60% discount on existing debt in arrears, dating back to December 2013, would be announced by Minister of Transport Dipuo Peters, once it was available. Sanral said the 30 free gantry passes per annum would be announced once the system and administrative requirements had been fulfilled. "The new dispensation also means that all the administrative and technical loopholes will be closed.

"Every road user will pay their fair share while both the national and provincial governments will also make their contributions in accordance with the hybrid funding model that was proposed by the e-toll advisory panel," Mona said. Caps for registered account holders per vehicle class, per month:

- A1, Motorcycles R125

- A2, Light vehicles R225

- B, Small heavy vehicles R875

- C, Large heavy vehicles R2900