Sanral has collected R5.6 billion less in e-toll fees than budgeted mostly because there is no clarity from government about the future of the system, Parliament has heard.
Transport Minister Blade Nzimande in April told the portfolio committee on transport that he worries about the funding of road infrastructure development, particularly the financing of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project or e-tolls which is a “big issue”.
“We will have to come up with a strategy of funding road construction and maintenance programmes on a sustainable basis,” he said at the time. At Tuesday’s briefing Treasury also raised concerns over the financial position of the Road Accident Fund and the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa). Prasa’s available cash at the end of the financial year was 12.3% more than expected at R13.8 billion, but Treasury said that this was due to a lack of spending on the passenger rail entity’s maintenance and capital programme. The net cash flow from investing activities was 48.5% or R6.6 billion less than projected. Treasury and the Department of Transport are working with the entity to help it fast track spending on projects. If it cannot then Treasury will reduce its allocations to Prasa, Modise warned. The RAF on the other hand is struggling to keep up with the claims it receives, as they outweigh the income it gets from the road accident fuel levy. The levy was increased by 30c per litre this year, but even these funds can only cover current claims and not the backlog, Modise said. The RAF’s cash available at the end of the year was R114.2 millio less than the R1.68 billion which was budgeted.