It has been four months since government's controversial e-toll system went live and, to date, less than 10% of the fees due to the SA National Roads Agency (Sanral) have been paid.
Transport minister Dipuo Peters says, as at 28 February, the total revenue transferred to Sanral's Violations Processing Centre (VPC) for collection is R543 544 574 - of which just 9.21% (R50 043 487) has been paid.
The VPC is Sanral's debt-collection division, responsible for processing and collecting overdue e-toll fees.
The statement came in response to parliamentary questions posed by Democratic Alliance shadow minister of transport Ian Ollis.
The relatively low R50 million in paid fees comes in at less than the amount Sanral has spent so far in its invoicing and debt recovery efforts.
According to Peters, as at 28 February, R54 735 638 has been expended in the collection of debt. This includes R32 782 580 for postage and printing of invoices, which the minister notes is required in terms of regulation. "The cost of debt collection processes is, therefore, R21 953 058, which is 4% of revenue and 44% of cash generated in the VPC to date."
Ollis says these figures are a sign the people of Gauteng are effectively rejecting e-tolls in their numbers. "The people of Gauteng and the rest of South Africa are angered by the unnecessary financial burden that has been put on them because of this system."
CFO statement
Last month, Sanral said it had collected R250.8 million between when e-tolling went live in Gauteng and the end of February.
Sanral CFO Inge Mulder said at the time the agency had recorded revenue of R953 million from the system.
However, she said the revenue represents the "nominal value of transactions", excluding value-added tax, and has not been adjusted in terms of International Financial Reporting Standards, which requires amounts to be fair-valued and impaired, if applicable.
As a result, the revenue could change and will still be reviewed by the auditor-general for accuracy and completeness. No provision for bad debt has been included, said Sanral.
Withholding licences
In other e-toll news, the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (Outa) has welcomed clarification by Gerrie Gerneke, director of licensing and prosecutions, at the Johannesburg Metro Police Department, that unpaid e-toll bills cannot lead to the withholding of vehicle licence registrations.
Speaking on Talk Radio 702 earlier this week, Gerneke said: "There is no legislation that prohibits motorists from renewing their vehicle licences if they have outstanding e-toll bills."
Outa says Gerneke's clarification evidences that the failure to pay an e-toll bill is not a traffic infringement, and that traffic authorities have no jurisdiction over non-payment of e-tolls bills.
Outa spokesperson John Clarke says: "It will not please Sanral to have the ambiguity clarified, as the 'threat' of withholding a vehicle licence, along with bad debt and criminal records, has caused many motorists to contact Outa seeking reassurance."
Clarke notes that so far, there have not been any charges or arrests made on the grounds of non-payment of e-tolls, "despite there being no shortage of 'suspects' for the 'crime'".
"Outa believes that when the history of the e-toll saga is written, it will be the foolish and oppressive attempt to criminalise non-payment of e-tolls that will be shown to have been the main cause of the downfall of e-tolling."
The Department of Transport, which has been cited as saying the non-payment of e-tolls could prevent defaulters from renewing vehicle licences, had not responded to request for comment by the time of publication.
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