{"id":521734,"date":"2021-09-15T15:35:43","date_gmt":"2021-09-15T13:35:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=521734"},"modified":"2021-09-15T15:35:43","modified_gmt":"2021-09-15T13:35:43","slug":"there-is-now-only-one-answer-to-e-tolls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/motoring\/521734\/there-is-now-only-one-answer-to-e-tolls\/","title":{"rendered":"There is now only one answer to e-tolls"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) has called on finance minister Enoch Godongwana to waive all outstanding e-toll debt.<\/p>\n

Godongwana reportedly <\/a><\/b>told a meeting of ANC leaders this week that difficult trade-offs would be required to fund the party\u2019s R73.5 billion wish list.<\/p>\n

One of the financial challenges mentioned by the minister was that R4.6 billion would be needed to cover Gauteng\u2019s unpaid e-tolls and he cautioned against forgiving this debt.<\/p>\n

However, Outa chief executive Wayne Duvenage contends that the state has no other option but to face reality and waive this debt as uncollectable, after years of motorists defying the ‘irrational and grossly inefficient scheme’.<\/p>\n

“The state continues to make this mistake on the e-toll debacle and must surely realise after seven years of failure that raising and clinging to unjustified debt from a defiant public is a lost cause,” he said.<\/p>\n

In March 2019, Sanral\u2019s board resolved to stop pursuing e-toll debt. Sanral has also halted its court challenge against Outa, which they had set out to force e-toll defaulters to pay, Duvenage said.<\/p>\n

“Essentially, they have no enforcement mechanism available to retrieve the outstanding e-toll debt.”<\/p>\n

Sanral has already effectively written off R17.3 billion of e-toll debt which it was forced to reflect as unrecognised revenue since the e-toll scheme began in December 2013, and has impaired a further R6.3 billion e-toll debt, Duvenage said.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, Treasury has allocated grants of R10.8 billion to Sanral since 2016 to cover the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) debt, which reflects that the state has resigned itself to having no option but to settle what was an expensive mistake, courtesy of poor judgment by Sanral at the time, he said.<\/p>\n

Aside from the e-toll debt comment, based on what was reported, there is merit in much of minister Godongwana\u2019s approach to other aspects which need to be tackled Duvenage said. These include:<\/p>\n