Cape Town - Motorists remain easy targets for revenue collection despite many already suffering as a result of increases to the fuel price, the Automobile Association (AA) said.
"This is particularly prejudicial to motorists especially in the context of a lack of proper, reliable public transport.”
The AA said the announcement by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan of an increase in the fuel levy and road accident fund (RAF) is a cause for great concern.
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Gordhan stated that an additional 30 cents/litre is to be added to the general fuel levy for the second year in a row, and that an additional nine cents a litre is to be added to the RAF levy.
The AA said the additional 30 cents/l means that motorists will now be paying R3.15 towards the fuel levy for every litre of fuel they put in their vehicles, and additional R1.63/l for the RAF levy.
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“Effectively this means that for every litre of petrol, motorists are paying R4.78 on indirect taxes. South Africans already buckling because of the weak economy will now have dig even deeper in their pockets,” the AA said.
The association noted this increase comes amid widespread apathy towards other taxes on motorists, for instance, the funding model of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP).
“We have long called for a portion of this fuel levy to be ring-fenced and used for projects such as Gauteng’s etolls. But the money collected through this levy does not go towards this. Instead motorists must pay extra taxes for the use of the roads,” the AA noted.
“Hundreds of thousands of commuters rely on their vehicles to get to and from work daily. And, these increases will not only impact on transport costs but are also putting inflationary pressure on other commodities that rely on road transport.”
The association said it believed the time was right for a review of the fuel and RAF levies.
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