The projected annual revenue for e-tolling in the 2013 financial year is R1.01 billion, yet the operation costs for the system in the same year will be R1.12 billion.
This is according to transport minister Sibusiso Ndebele, in response to a question at the National Council of Provinces (NCOP).
The minister said the projected income from e-tolls for 2012 cannot be determined, because the system has not yet become operational, but the toll operation costs will be R519.6 million.
The projected annual toll revenue on the Gauteng toll route for the 2014 financial year is R2.49 billion and the toll operation/collection cost for the same period will be R1.42 billion.
The cost of maintenance and improvement of roads for the 2012, 2013 and 2014 financial years will be R2.29 billion, R668.7 million, and R373.7 million, respectively.
“The predicted revenues are dependent on the traffic volumes, which could mean a reduction in operations costs. However, the maintenance and improvements expenditure will be incurred, because, without timeous maintenance of the roads, the conditions of the roads will deteriorate,” said Ndebele.
Poor planning
Democratic Alliance member of the NCOP in KwaZulu-Natal, Alf Lees, says the projected annual toll revenue on the Gauteng toll route will be over R100 million less than the cost of toll operation and collection in 2013, which shows how much it will cost just to administer the e-toll system.
“[It is] a cost that will be passed on to cash-strapped consumers.”
Lees says the figures demonstrate that the implementation of the Gauteng tolls was ill-conceived and poorly planned. He adds that the high cost of administering the tolls explains why the cost of travelling on the toll roads is so outrageously high.
“The government has created an unnecessary cost burden that all South Africans will pay the price for. On these grounds alone, the toll roads should never have been given the go ahead by the Gauteng government.
“Treasury and the Department of Transport argue that tolling is necessary to fund this type of road infrastructure. And yet they do not seem to consider just how much operating the e-tolls actually costs.”
This is the key argument presented by the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (OUTA), which lodged an application to get e-tolling interdicted.
The system was supposed to become operational on 30 April, but judge Bill Prinsloo at the Pretoria High Court yesterday ruled OUTA's application as urgent and so it will be heard before e-tolling can go ahead.
A decision on the interdict is expected by the end of the week.
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