Johannesburg - The South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) toll road operations have declined 20 percent to R5.06 billion in the year to March compared with the previous year, with the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) contributing R1.7bn to the decrease in revenue.
Sanral said the discounts provided to road users were not recognised because the probability that this amount would be received “is very low”.
It said although a majority of the dispensation strategies for the GFIP had been implemented, the cash receipts from this remained low.
The agency said that as at May 19, 6 286 summonses with a total value of R575.1 million, had been submitted to the Sheriff of the Court to be served.
It said it had narrowed its loss after finance charges to R954.2m in the year to March from the R1.1bn loss in the previous year.
The operating loss after finance charges from Sanral’s toll operations was R1.125bn.
Revenue from Sanral’s non-toll operations increased by 22.5 percent to R6.57bn. This represented the R12.54bn grant received from government, less R7.26bn capitalised and deferred for the year, plus R1.3bn realised from government grants received and capitalised in previous years.
Sanral’s annual report and financial statements received an unqualified audit opinion from the auditor-general.
But in an emphasis of matters, the auditor-general said the Less60 campaign and Sanral’s successive auctions up to March this year had ensured that the project could continue and the uncertainty whether the tolling of the GFIP would continue as a going concern had been removed.
Wayne Duvenage, the chairman of the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse, expressed concern about this statement by the auditor-general, saying the Less60 campaign was a failure and “so we see no relevance of this reference in the auditor-general’s statement”.
Duvenage said they also found a statement in Sanral’s annual report “rather absurd”. It said: “The continuation of the legal prosecuting process, civil and criminal, for outstanding GFIP debt is expected to have a significant impact on the collection of debt, more so than what the previous discounts offered had.”
Duvenage said Sanral indicated last year that their forthcoming discount dispensation, the Less60 campaign, would have an impact on their ability to claw back a large part of the e-toll debt when in actual fact a dismal and extremely low amount was generated.
“We believe Sanral’s reliance on its current legal process will be just as ineffective,” he said.
Transgressed
Sanral is trying to address allegations that it transgressed the Legal Metrology Act in failing to obtain certification of its e-toll electronic systems.
The directors’ report in Sanral’s latest annual report said there were no technical regulations and/or notices that had been published by the national regulator in terms of the Legal Metrology Act and the transport minister was for the purposes of complying with this act, dependent on the publication of regulations in terms of this act.
Sanral stressed that in the absence of the regulations, compliance with this act was impossible. It said the chief executive of the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications would then, in consultation with Sanral, set the conditions and requirements for the use of the toll gantries.
“Sanral is currently working with the regulator to establish these standards to be regulated,” it said.
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