Sanral has new e-toll tactics
Yesterday, Electronic Toll Collection - the company established to collect money on behalf of the SA National Roads Agency - outlined its strategies to recover the billions of rands in e-toll fees that have not been paid.
ETC said that debt accumulated between 3 December 2013 and 31 August 2015 could still be settled at a 60% discount before the 1 May deadline. This is in line with a dispensation announced by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa last year. If a debt is large, a payment arrangement that will allow a 60% discount can be made. The e-toll debt currently stands at about R5.2billion.
ETC's chief operating officer, Mark Ridgway, said: "This requirement was borne out of requests from the motor industry which said that the administrative burden of tolling was onerous. The vehicle is listed on a database and is similar to a finance house saying you owe R50,000 on your car. This may affect the trade-in value on a vehicle."
Settling e-toll debt
Furthermore, he said, Sanral had gazetted plans, awaiting public comment, whereby traffic fines could be issued for unpaid e-tolls in line with the Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences Act.
Ridgway said about 17% of the province's road users owed 83% of the debt. There are about 2.5 million cars that use Gauteng's tolled highways every month.
He said some companies owed as much over R20-million in e-toll bills. If the e-toll debt was not settled within the discount period, he said, a court summons would be served. Bills involving payment of less than R400,000 will be brought before a magistrate's court while bills in excess of R400,000 will be brought before the high court.
The good news is that since 1 September 2015, the toll tariff for unregistered road users is now approximately 50% lower than it was.
ETC said it could not disclose the cost of recovering every unpaid Rand, but said this would be much lower in a compliant environment than one in which motorists defied them.
Source: The Times