Durban - High vehicle licence fees are driving many KwaZulu-Natal motorists, including fleet owners, to register their vehicles in other provinces, hitting KwaZulu-Natal government revenues.
However, MPLs are looking at ways to claw back some of that money. Public representatives in the legislature this week chipped in with innovative ways in which the transport department could stem the losses.
Transport portfolio committee chairman, Mxolisi Kaunda, said the department should consider a window period for reduced rates for licence renewals in KwaZulu-Natal as a way to woo back those who had migrated to other provinces.
“It is a matter to look at and check what can work better for the province,” he said. “We need to look at it. People like things that are cheap because of the economic situation,” Kaunda said.
Committee member Bheki Ntuli’s suggestion that service providers who work for the department be forced to register in the province was immediately shot down by his colleagues.
This happened when the committee received a report on the process being followed by the national department to standardise fees.
NO INCREASE
Provincial transport department head Sibusiso Gumbi said KwaZulu-Natal continued to be the most expensive province for vehicle licence fees.
Gumbi said the province had, over the years, increased the fees, and now many vehicles were being registered in other provinces.
He said the loss in vehicle registration fees to other provinces meant that the department’s contribution to KZN’s revenue was reduced.
In a report to the committee, senior manager for motor transport Sue Grobbelaar said companies were moving their fleet licences to provinces where it was cheaper, and this had prompted the approval of a decision not to increase fees in KwaZulu-Natal.
“An increase in this province’s already high licence fees could draw negative criticism for the department,” said Grobbelaar about the decision not to increase the fees.
She said the national department was in a process of standardising vehicle registration fees and a working group comprising all provinces had been formed.
“The working group is in the process of finalising recommendations.”
Grobbelaar also said regulations being formulated would provide for vehicle owners to produce addresses of their residential or business areas when they registered their vehicles.
The province, Grobbelaar said, saw the regulation as a way to stop the migration of vehicle registrations to other provinces.
IN COMPARISON
The annual registration fee for a sedan weighing up to 1500kg is R558 in KwaZulu-Natal, compared to R504 in the Eastern Cape, R492 in Gauteng, R488 in the Western Cape and R324 in Mpumalanga.
To licence a truck weighing up to 8000kg costs R10 776 in KwaZulu-Natal, against R9708 in Gauteng, R9084 in the Eastern Cape, R8634 in the Western Cape and R6936 in Mpumalanga.
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