Future of e-tolls up in the air as Cabinet mulls ways to keep national roads agency’s wheels turning.
Uncertainty caused by the court interdict halting the collection of toll fees for the Gauteng freeway improvement project has prompted Cabinet to consider going to Parliament to appropriate more money to keep the SA National Roads Agency Ltd (Sanral) functioning. At a Parliamentary press briefing on Thursday, finance minister Pravin Gordhan, who is part of an inter-ministerial committee established by Cabinet to look into the issue, said this was one of the range of options that was being looked at with regard to where the money would come from. In February Mr Gordhan announced that government would appropriate R5,75bn as a means to lower the fees motorists would have to pay. However, he refused to say on Thursday how much more money would be needed as the funding still had to be worked out. “Nothing that we do will increase our deficit – we will work within the current fiscal envelope,” Mr Gordhan said. He then warned his Cabinet counterparts that they may be facing budget cuts in their departments as one of the options and referred to his “haircut” phrase that was used last year, when he described the trimming of government spending. “My colleagues here – they are smiling here – but my colleagues may lose some money either through the raising of user charges or taxes or haircuts in government,” Mr Gordhan said. Deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe, who chairs the inter-ministerial committee, interrupted Mr Gordhan, quipping:“head cuts are best though”.During the press briefing Gordhan cited credit ratings agency Moody’s assessment and said that Sanral was losing about R270m per month, while other sources indicated that this could be as high as R500m to R600m per month as the fees were not collected.
Mr Gordhan said the current interest costs on Sanral bonds was at about R58m per month and that the first payment due thereon was in January 2013. In may the North Gauteng High Court granted an urgent order, brought by a coalition of concerned organisations that halted the implementation of toll collections. Mr Motlanthe said the court order had created a considerable amount of uncertainty, as, it was open ended and a final ruling may only be forthcoming in August next year. Transport Minister Sisubiso Ndebele stated during the press briefing that Nazir Alli, the agency’s CEO would remain in his position after having tendered his resignation. Mr Ndebele said Alli had opted to resign in the belief that he was the problem. “He thought the problem surrounded him. But this is not so. So there was an understanding that he stays put,” Ndebele said. Source: http://www.businesslive.co.za
