Using the fuel levy to fund Gauteng’s highways means no one has to be employed for fee collection, the Congress of SA Trade Unions said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
“You don’t even need to employ half an individual,” Cosatu provincial secretary Dumisani Dakile told the advisory panel on e-tolls and their socio-economic impact in Midrand.<\/p>\n
He said an additional 14c a litre on the fuel levy would meet the SA National Roads Agency Limited’s (Sanral) funding needs.<\/p>\n
This was based on data indicating 22.5 billion litres of fuel was consumed in South Africa in the 2013\/14 financial year. Each extra cent would provide an additional R215 million of revenue.<\/p>\n
Other funding options proposed were a one percent surcharge on personal income tax, an additional tax bracket for those earning R1.5 million a year, increasing company tax by one or two percent for one or two years, and increasing and standardising vehicle licence fees.<\/p>\n
“We have consistently argued that taxation must be the main source of funding of road infrastructure,” Dakile said.<\/p>\n
Of the listed options, the fuel levy appeared to be the easiest.<\/p>\n
Dakile said fining road users for not paying their e-toll bills was a form of “back-door generation” and an abuse of law.<\/p>\n
Such fines, and arresting people for not paying them, posed an unnecessary burden on an already clogged justice system.<\/p>\n
“We believe it will be a waste of resources to come and arrest people,” Dakile said.<\/p>\n
“There was no mind put here at the beginning of this project. Only their stomach and nothing else.”<\/p>\n
He said with opposition to e-tolls uniting people across society like never before, it was clear the people of Gauteng did not want it.<\/p>\n
Beyond being a socio-economic problem, e-tolling was also a political problem.<\/p>\n
“We are not saying government must not pay… but what we are refusing is how you want to pay that debt,” he said.<\/p>\n
“To resolve this thing, you need politicians who have got guts.”<\/p>\n
Dakile warned that come the 2016 local government elections, if e-tolls were not properly addressed, the African National Congress could be governing Gauteng’s three metros with the opposition.<\/p>\n
The panel will focus on the implications and perceptions of financing the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) and e-tolls.<\/p>\n
On Monday, the Gauteng provincial government announced the panel would embark on a month-long consultation process, starting on Wednesday, with organisations and individuals.<\/p>\n
Organisations were invited to make submissions on the economic, social, and environmental impacts of the GFIP and e-tolls, and how e-tolling’s costs and benefits were distributed across society and the economy.<\/p>\n
The panel was expected to report to premier David Makhura at the end of November.<\/p>\n
Union suggests e-toll funding alternatives<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n E-toll panel opens for public consultation<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n E-tolls review panel outlines consultation process<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n