THE Ports Regulator of South Africa (PRSA) this week granted an overall increase in average tariffs for the financial year of 4.8 percent, but lambasted the National Ports Authority (NPA) on its continued bad rollout of capital expenditure (capex).
Speaking at the virtual announcement of PRSA’s record of decision on the National Ports Authority (NPA) 2022/23 – 2024/25 Tariff Application held this week, it said the NPA the previous year had a poor capex rollout of only R684 million.
PRSA acting chairperson Dr Tshisikhawe Victor Munyama said it was evident that, in spite of a clear regulatory incentive to increase capex spending, the NPA had consistently failed to execute the full capex programme, as allowed for by the regulator.
“The ports regulator is cognisant that capital expenditure is a key component to the development and sustainability of our port system, not to mention the multiplier impact of the programme on the recovery of the economy.
“In this context it would not be prudent to cut back on capital expenditure in an economic downturn as spending on infrastructure also contributes to the country’s gross capital formation, and allows the port system to be ready for the eventual upswing in economic growth,” Munyama said.
The regulator, whose key function is economic regulation of the ports system in South Africa, in line with the strategic development context of the state, said it would place a continued and increased focus on the authority’s capex under-expenditure and carry out capital works-in-progress assessments; closely monitor the expenditure improvement programme and periodically conduct meetings at respective ports; and receive reports from the authority that include technical skills and capacity, planning and supply chain processes impacting capex implementation.
Munyama said besides capital expenditure allowed, operational cost amounting to R5.92 billion, including Transnet overhead costs, was fully allowed for, ensuring both the sustainability and further development of the South African ports infrastructure system.
PRSA said despite the authority not being able to submit their audited annual financial statements nor the responses to all requests for such, the regulator was able to adequately assess the application and made the following decision after considering not only the application, but also the submissions made by all of the stakeholders during the consultation period.
Following and based on the latest available data, it concluded that an appropriate overall increase in average tariffs for the financial year 2021/22 was 4.8 percent with the use of ETIMC, which translated into revenue of R14 815bn, providing the authority with the revenue they applied for.
In particular, the marine services and related tariffs were to increase by 12 percent, all container cargo dues were to remain unchanged, dry bulk coal export cargo dues were to increase by 11 percent and dry bulk magnetite export cargo dues to increase by 15 percent.
The “roll-on/roll-off export cargo dues were to remain unchanged, all liquid bulk cargo dues would also remain unchanged; and all other tariffs were to increase by 4.2 percent in line with expected inflation.
TNPA chief executive Pepi Silinga acknowledged that the organisation could not submit their audited financial statements due to a variety of challenges, including the cyberattacks earlier this year that hit Transnet’s operations.
He said the cyberattacks had had a negative impact on their ability to complete the audit, as it impacted the availability of data and information that was not always readily available to compile the complementary financial statements.
BUSINESS REPORT ONLINE