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Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan delivers his annual budget speech in parliament. Photo: Leon Lestrade

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• DA challenges economist on tolls

Thank you for the toll fee cut, Mr Finance Minister, now you have given us no choice but to continue the fight against toll roads.

This was the sentiment expressed by Cosatu and motoring organisations on Wednesday after Pravin Gordhan’s announcement that e-toll fees will not be scrapped, but rather reduced and capped.

“We are not cash cows that can be held up on behalf of foreigners who want to make money off us by using our public goods,” Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said.

“The strike continues (on March 7) and we probably will have another strike by (April 30) – the day he (Gordhan) says they will start introducing, or enforcing, this e-toll gate in Gauteng. We will not compromise.”

Gordhan said in his Budget speech that the Treasury would give R5.75 billion towards roads that had been built.

The toll fees would be reduced to 30c/km for ordinary vehicles, down from 40c/km, and motorcycles would pay 20c/km. Non-articulated trucks would pay 75c/km and articulated trucks R1.51/km.

Toll fees would be capped for regular road users at R550 a month, and there would be a 15 percent discount in rates after toll fees reached R400 a month. Tolling will begin on April 30.

Gordhan did not say what the amount would be without an e-tag.

Paul Pauwen, of the SA Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (Savrala), the DA and the Automobile Association intend to launch legal action against e-tolling.

Pauwen said Savrala was disappointed with the decision to proceed with e-tolling, despite studies handed to the Treasury which show that if the roads were paid for through the fuel levy, motorists would have to pay only an extra 8c/litre to pay for Gauteng’s roads and 25c/litre to pay for road infrastructure nationwide.

“E-tolling is eight times too expensive,” said Pauwen.

“If they don’t provide an alternative form of public transport, how dare they tell us we have to pay.”

Spokesman Gary Ronald said the AA was convinced that despite the fee reduction, the cost to the consumer “as far as the Gauteng tolls are concerned is going to hit home hard when commodity prices and transport costs increase”.

Chris Gilmour, of Absa Asset Management Private Clients, said: “Although significantly reduced from the original plan, the fees will still have a negative impact on consumer spending.”

The DA’s Jack Bloom said the money given to pay for the roads made the case against the e-toll collection system stronger, “as it will cost about R1 billion a year to collect a smaller amount”.

National Association of Automobile Manufacturers of SA president David Powels said: “The automotive industry would have preferred to see freeway improvement programmes being financed through an administratively more efficient and less costly fuel levy.”

Cliff Watson, executive tax manager at Grant Thornton Joburg, said:

“It should be taken into account that a motorist with an e-tag would need to travel approximately 1 833km a month, or 46km a day one way on the toll road, to reach the cap of R550 a month.” - The Star

The full Budget speech