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Budget money not enough to keep up roads

Cape Town - Budget allocations for road-building are about half the amount required to wipe out the backlog and ensure South Africa has a good road network.

If this backlog were to be cleared, the fuel levy would have to increase from R2 to R3 per litre, which is not politically feasible against the background of the current high crude oil price.

This is the gist of a presentation by Louw Kannemeyer of the National Roads Agency and subsequent discussions at the Road Pavements Forum held in Gordons Bay.

It comes amid pleas from the business sector and various other quarters that the fuel levy should be used to fund the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project, rather than the toll charge of up to 66c per kilometre. A report in this regard is expected within days.

Government’s revenue from the fuel levy and licence fees amounted to some R33bn in the past financial year and this year the state is expected to collect around R39bn.

Kannemeyer said National Treasury is not inclined to widen the gap between income from and expenditure on the roads sector.

A representative of the Cape Town City Council said these days metro councils receive an allocation from the fuel levy. This is intended to replace the Regional Services Council levies, and is not specifically allocated for road works. It is however apparently spent mainly on other projects, such as low-cost housing.

Kannemeyer said the global trend is increasingly to generate funds for road works according to the “user pays” principle. This is the principle underlying the levying of toll fees.

In South Africa this tolls are currently a political hot potato. Transport Minister S’bu Ndebele recently suspended the promulgated toll charges on Gauteng’s freeways following fierce public opposition.

According to Kannemeyer, the authorities in The Netherlands are currently considering levying tolls on all vehicles, based on GPS data. In the Western Cape there’s apparently also an investigation under way into the levying of GPS-based toll fees on heavy vehicles.

- Sake24

For business news in Afrikaans, go to Sake24.com.
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