{"id":409117,"date":"2020-06-19T11:06:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-19T09:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=409117"},"modified":"2020-06-19T11:06:00","modified_gmt":"2020-06-19T09:06:00","slug":"e-tolls-are-costing-south-africa-in-more-ways-than-one-mbalula","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/motoring\/409117\/e-tolls-are-costing-south-africa-in-more-ways-than-one-mbalula\/","title":{"rendered":"E-tolls are costing South Africa in more ways than one: Mbalula"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Transport minister Fikile Mbalula says that South Africa&#8217;s controversial e-toll system has had an impact on the country&#8217;s ability to raise external capital.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at a media briefing on Friday (19 June), Mbalula said that the South African Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) and other roads agencies have been adversely affected by the country&#8217;s coronavirus lockdown.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Sanral not only suffered from loss of revenue but delays in capital projects have also had an adverse effect. Sanral&#8217;s access to capital markets is limited as a result of a downgrade earlier in the year.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You know we are dealing with a very difficult issue in the country which is the e-tolls. That has actually affected our capacity to borrow in the bond market to favour Sanral&#8217;s position.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He added that this had a knock-on effect on other capital projects &#8211; such as potholes and the development of the new Moloto road.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Those who borrow money say that they don&#8217;t care whether &#8216;the cat is black or white&#8217; as long as the decision is taken around e-tolls. That is what brings certainty to Sanral and its credibility to borrow over time.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NIu_kQsBoZA\" width=\"640\" height=\"430\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong>Other sources of revenue<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In February, the National Treasury warned that government will have to look at other sources of finance to make up for Gauteng\u2019s e-toll revenue collection.<\/p>\n<p>In its National Budget <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.treasury.gov.za\/documents\/National%20Budget\/2020\/review\/FullBR.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">document <\/a><\/strong>Treasury said that the controversial tolling system was currently a risk to South Africa\u2019s fiscal outlook.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cClarity on government\u2019s position on the user-pay principle as it relates to e-tolls (is still needed),\u201d it said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDeclining e-toll revenue will have to be offset by other measures to repay South African National Roads Agency Limited debt. It could also affect funding for other investment projects.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Other \u2018fiscal risks\u2019 facing South Africa as identified by Treasury include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Insufficient progress on Eskom reforms and its financial position, and demands from other financially distressed state-owned companies;<\/li>\n<li>Outcomes of the renegotiation of the existing wage agreement and the following round of wage talks;<\/li>\n<li>The Road Accident Fund is government\u2019s second-largest contingent liability after Eskom. A decision on the Road Accident Benefit Scheme Bill is required to pave the way for a more affordable system.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/motoring\/407905\/joburg-and-cape-town-car-licence-renewals-under-lockdown-here-are-the-centres-that-are-open\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Joburg and Cape Town car licence renewals under lockdown \u2013 here are the centres that are open<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Transport minister Fikile Mbalula says that South Africa&#8217;s controversial e-tolls system has had an impact on the country&#8217;s ability to raise external capital.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":12007,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11119],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-409117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motoring","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409117"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":409143,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409117\/revisions\/409143"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}