Experts have warned that the latest draft of the \u00a0Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences (Aarto) Act contains a ‘stealth tax’ which will see South African motorists pay an additional R100 fee for every fine that they receive.<\/p>\n
The Automobile Association’s (AA’s) Layton Beard told Rapport <\/strong><\/a>that even if a motorist successfully disputes the fine, they will not get this R100 levy back.<\/p>\n This means that even motorists who have been fined wrongfully will have to pay the new R100 infringement penalty levy.<\/p>\n \u201cWith regards to the Infringement Penalty Levy, the regulations directly imply the imposition of a tax. In this case, it refers to a fee payable for every infringement notice issued to motorists,\u201d the AA said.<\/p>\n It said that the levy is added to each fine issued, regardless of the value of the fine or its associated demerit points.<\/p>\n \u201cIn other words, if a motorist receives a R200 or R2,000 fine, an additional R100 must be added for the Infringement Penalty Levy, which amounts to a tax for actually receiving the fine,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n The AA highlighted that on 20 million infringement notices which are issued annually, this would amount to a R2 billion windfall for the Road Traffic Infringement Agency (RTIA).<\/p>\n E-tolls<\/strong><\/p>\n The Democratic Alliance has also warned that the introduction of the Aarto could see motorists forcibly paying for e-tolls.<\/p>\n The party had previously raised concerns that in an earlier draft of the laws, operator class motor vehicles which do not pay e-tolls would be fined R500 and stand to lose one demerit point for every fine that is not paid.<\/p>\n In the recently gazetted regulations this has now been changed \u2013 however, the DA noted that while the motorist will not receive demerit points,\u00a0a fine will still be incurred<\/strong>, \u201cwhich is now double for failing to pay e-tolls,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n While the act introduces a number of changes, the DA said that it can also be seen as\u00a0\u00a0just another way to force motorists to pay for e-tolls.<\/p>\n \u201cThe DA has always been against the implementation of e-tolls as this is an unfair burden on the residents of Gauteng who are already struggling to make ends meet.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat is clear is that residents are not prepared to pay for e-tolls. We cannot have a situation where motorists are fined for something which they were not consulted on in the first place,\u201d the party said.<\/p>\n The DA said that the government has previously committed to a decision about the future of e-tolls will be made \u2018soon\u2019. However, over a year later, no decision has yet been made.<\/p>\n \u201cThe e-toll system must be scrapped before it turns motorists into criminals,\u201d the DA said.<\/p>\n Transport minister Fikile Mbalula\u00a0gazetted<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>the latest draft of the administrative adjudication of road traffic offences (Aarto) regulations last week.<\/p>\n