Johannesburg - It’s illegal to not pay your e-toll account and those who refuse to pay should receive court summons in the next two weeks.
That is what Electronic Toll Company chief executive Jamie Surkont wants e-toll road users to know.
Surkont and Mark Ridgway, ETC’s chief operations officer, held a media briefing on the finer details of the less 60 percent campaign the South African National Roads Agency Limited and the collection company embarked on to help road users pay for the e-tolls.
“It’s the same as paying your TV licence,” Surkont said. “It’s illegal not to pay for your TV licence - and it’s the same principal with e-tolls.”
Surkont and Ridgway explained that those with outstanding amounts have until 1 May to benefit from the 60 percent discount.
The discount applies to “historic debt” incurred from 1 December 2013 to 21 August last year.
Any debt incurred from 1 September 2015 will not be subject to the 60 percent discount.
“After 31 August 2015, the tariff is 50 percent lower than what it was before that date and 50 percent lower if you pay within 30 days,” Ridgway said.
The company has separated those owing money for tolls into two “buckets”, the “refuse to payers” and the “non-responders”.
Ridgway explained that the refuse to payers are those who have said explicitly that they would never pay for their toll fees. They would be immediately dealt with before the May deadline.
Surkont urged those owing to take advantage of the 60 percent discount before the deadline lapsed.
“It’s a really good discount,” he said. “If you owe R1000 and you pay now, you will only pay R400 but once the deadline lapses you will go back to the R1000.”
VEHICLE LISTINGS
They said those who did not pay faced vehicle listings and court summons. Vehicle listing includes the car owner not being able to sell their car without having settled their debt.
Another proposal that is being gazetted for public comment is that not paying for e-toll debt would result in being issued a traffic fine.
Those who want to pay but cannot pay the entire amount at once can enter into a payment arrangement, but one that would only last six months. Those who default on payment will be issued with a summons.
“In the next two weeks we will be issuing summons,” Ridgway said.
Sanral’s biggest debtor is a trucking company that owes R26 million.
“About 517 000 accounts owe 83 percent of historical debt and it amounts to R5.2 billion,” Ridgway said.
Surkont said they respected people’s decision not to want to pay but they would have to face the consequences.
“The biggest noise makers are the refuse to payers,” he said.
He said if people did not pay then it would affect taxpayers as the debt would have to be settled in some or other way and it would most probably be through taxes.