Johannesburg - Gauteng motorists might have been forgiven for thinking Christmas had come late when the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse suggested on Tuesday that the South African National Roads Agency had randomly written off millions in e-toll debt.
DA Gauteng provincial leader John Moodey added to the euphoria by referring to a major announcement that was to be made by Gauteng Premier David Makhura on Tuesday night, expressing the DA’s hope that “it will be to announce the scrapping of e-tolls once and for all”.
Moodey said it had become increasingly clear that Gauteng’s citizens had resoundingly rejected e-tolls and their continued implementation, which was illustrated by Sanral’s terrible financial situation.
“Furthermore, the so-called new dispensation on e-tolls is due to be implemented during an election year, and there is no easier way to lose votes than to force people to pay for something they don’t want and didn’t ask for,” he said.
Rob Hutchinson, the communications director for the alliance, formerly the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance, said it had received a few messages from members who had sizable outstanding e-toll bills that ranged between R20 000 and R30 000 whose statements at the end of last year indicated the outstanding balances had been “erased to a few rands”.
Hutchinson said Outa had been informed by members of the public that their outstanding e-toll balances had mysteriously “disappeared”, adding that copies of invoices sent to the alliance depicted these “windfall reductions to their |e-toll accounts” with their sizable outstanding balances mysteriously wiped clean.
He said a message sent to a section of the alliance’s membership base confirmed the accumulated e-toll bills of hundreds of Gauteng freeway users had been erased to a few hundred rand.
However, ETC chief operations officer Mark Ridgway told Business Report that it “was wishful thinking that it (e-toll debt) had disappeared”.
Ridgway said all the outstanding e-toll debt up to and including August 31 2015 had been ring-fenced following the announcement of the new e-toll dispensation announced by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa. He said in terms of this dispensation, which came into effect on 2 November, a 60 percent discount applied to those who settled their outstanding e-toll debt by 1 May.
“It (the e-toll debt) has not disappeared. The balance remains,” he said.
Ridgway said the outstanding e-toll debt up until 31 August had been ring-fenced because, in terms of the dispensation, motorists driving on the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project from 1 September would pay much lower e-toll tariffs and received a 50 percent discount if they paid their e-toll accounts within 30 days.
He confirmed the outstanding e-toll debt up to 31 August would not have appeared on the e-toll accounts received after 1 September and said motorists who wanted to know their outstanding balance could contact the e-toll call centre or go to the e-toll website.
Business Report