The SA National Roads Agency Ltd (Sanral) is expecting a 70 percent increase over two years in tollgate income.
|||SANRAL (SA National Roads Agency Ltd) is expecting a 70 percent increase over two years in tollgate income, but says this is not a plan for a massive hike in toll fees.
The budget documents released last week show the Sanral income from “tollgate fees” jumping from R2 billion in 2011/12 to R3.4bn in 2012/13, and finally to R5.7bn in 2014/15.
This is a 70 percent increase over the two years from 2012/13, when Gauteng’s electronic tolls start, to 2014/15.
“The start of the electronic toll collection from 2012 is reflected in the increase in toll revenue from R2 billion to R5.7 billion over the medium term, at an average annual rate of 42 percent,” said the budget documents.
A senior Sanral official, who asked not to be named, said the increase was not due to plans to increase toll charges substantially or add more toll points.
“No, it’s not either one of the two. It’s because you’ve got a ramp-up period for the first year, so you don’t assume 100 percent of your revenue for the first year,” she said.
“It’s not because of the toll fee increase, because the only toll fee increase is CPI (consumer price index) on all our budget numbers. There are no additional toll gates… next year either.”
She said another factor was that the 2012/13 toll revenuewas based on 11 months of Gauteng income as tolls start on April 30, a month into the financial year.
Studies showed that when tolls started, motorists diverted for a while but later returned to the toll roads, and this was factored into the financial planning. A normal annual traffic growth is also included.
The official dismissed concerns of huge increases in the Gauteng tolls.
“For the past 20 years, Sanral’s always only increased the toll fees by the CPI,” she said.
E-tolling was supposed to have started on the upgraded Gauteng freeways a year ago, but consistent public protest led to numerous postponements.
Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan last week said the government would bail out Sanral with R5.8bn by the end of the current financial year next month.
This bailout is specifically for the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project, to cover the losses from the late start to the e-tolls and the lower toll charges. Charges for cars were lowered from 40c/km to 30c/km for e-tag users.
Sanral’s money is split into two broad streams – money for non-toll roads (which the government funds) and money for toll roads (funded by tolls). This is kept strictly separate.
The bailout will cover the loss of toll income for a few years, when toll revenue starts recovering.
The effect of the fight over toll fees is reflected in the change in the predictions between last year’s and last week’s budget documents.
Documents from last year reveal that Sanral’s expected revenue from tolls nationally – listed as “tollgate fees” – for 2011/12 was R3.8bn.
But this year’s budget reveals Sanral’s actual toll revenue for the year was down by R1.8bn.
The projection in tollgate fees for Sanral over the next few years also dropped, but within two years the income is expected to be well up again.
A year ago, the 2012/13 toll income was projected at nearly R6bn. Last week’s budget revised this sharply downwards to R3.4bn. The projections for 2013/14 were revised down from R6.4bn to R4.5bn.
By 2014/15, tollgate fees are now expected to be up to R5.7bn, an increase over two years of 70 percent.
Gordhan said on Radio 702 last week that the R5.8bn once-off allocation was the best offer the government was prepared to give on tolls and it was time for the public to start paying for the roads. He had not looked into the costing of the operations of the project and would still investigate this.
The cost of administering and operating e-tolling has been a sticking point, leading to much of the protest against tolling in Gauteng.
Despite numerous calls for full disclosure, Sanral has never come clean on the full costing of the project. Through numerous investigations, The Star has discovered the project could be far higher than the costly Gautrain.
Parliamentary replies by Transport Minister S’bu Ndebele, as well as investigations by The Star, revealed the cost of upgrading the roads and operating the toll system may be as high as R35bn over 10 years.
This figure may be even higher as the cost of feasibility studies, design and management of the e-toll project have not been revealed.
If other large infrastructure projects are anything to go by, this could further escalate the full cost by billions of rand. - The Star