Task team set up for Acsa tariff impasse

Johannesburg - An independent task team is to be formed to give advice on an impasse between the Airports Company SA (Acsa) and the regulatory committee responsible for determining the company's tariffs.
  
"This matter has occupied the public space for quite a while and besides the necessity to expedite the conclusion, there is an expectation that this matter is speedily resolved," the transport department said in a statement on Tuesday.
  
It was issued following a meeting earlier in the day between Transport Minister Sibusiso Ndebele, the regulatory committee and
other interested parties.
  
The independence of the regulatory committee - responsible for determining tariffs - was called into question earlier this year when Acsa resorted to court action against it.
  
The company approached the court for a review of the regulatory process to decide on its tariffs, and the regulatory committee
filed a motion to oppose the application.
  
The move followed the decline of Acsa's request for a 133% tariff increase for 2010/11 by the regulatory committee. Acsa was instead awarded 40.7%.
  
The task team would "synthesise all available information, receive appropriate presentations and derive the best conclusions".
  
The regulatory committee was set up 16 years ago and consisted of five part-time members. Its work was fully funded by the transport department.
  
The team had been appointed from August 2010 and would submit its report to the Ndebele by the end of September.
  
The department said it was looking at establishing a full-time transport economic regulator, to replace the current ad hoc approach and create a more stable regulatory environment.

- Sapa