This week, Transport Minister Dipuo Peters announced that there would be a reprieve for Gauteng toll-road users, but no new e-toll discounts have been announced. What do we make of all of this? Paul Joubert, who is the Senior Economic Researcher at the SRI, joined Alec Hogg on CNBC Africa to unpack some of the issues that Minister Peters put on the table. Will we ever see the abandonment of the e-toll system? – AHÂ
ALEC HOGG: In a note that you put together, Paul, you’re suggesting that there’s actually nothing new here. Are we to assume then that the Minister was just playing politics?
PAUL JOUBERT: Well, I’m not sure whether she was playing politics or whether she herself, actually didn’t realise that the speechwriter who put the speech together, put in incorrect information
or whether she herself, does not understand the e-toll system as it stands – as it has operated from the start.Â
In her speech – it’s not only what was reported, but it’s in the text of the speech. She said that these discounts, the e-tag holder discount, time of day discount, frequent user caps per month: all of this would be introduced, but they have been in existence from the inception of the system in December last year, so it’s nothing new. There’s no reprieve. It was a SAPA release that called it a reprieve, and it was reported like that in the media yesterday, but it’s simply not the case.
ALEC HOGG: A nice bit of twisting of the realities I guess, but politicians have been known – once in a while – to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. As far as where you’re sitting Paul, is there any hope that e-tolls in Gauteng will be abandoned?
PAUL JOUBERT: It’s a difficult one to say because it goes to the principle of taxation, really. A toll run by…whether it’s on behalf of government by a private entity as government would say – and in this case, it’s actually happening, because ETC is not a government agency. It’s a private company. We all know the details there, so whether it’s like that or whether there’s a direct tax from SARS, this goes to the principle of government. No government ever wants to retreat when it comes to tax because governments are very afraid that people will realise it is possible to get certain taxes revoked or rescinded. That would therefore be the biggest motivating factor to keep the system going, even if it’s actually realised by everybody. The big issue with the e-toll system is the administration: not only the administration cost from SANRAL’s side, but also the admin cost for each and every person who has to pay the accounts…Â
That administration cost is astronomical and it eats up any real value that is generated by the system in the sense of ‘perhaps less congested freeways, etcetera’. Even if everybody realises that… It goes to the principle of governments not retreating when it comes to tax. The chance of it being revoked or cancelled is quite slim, although I think people in other provinces where there have been plans to introduce similar systems – they might have the good fortune of not having a system like this introduced, because it is going to be politically difficult.
ALEC HOGG: It’s a big story and a big issue then, that I guess both sides are fighting for. It’s very fascinating, the way that Paul Joubert, the Senior Economic Researcher at the SRI, encapsulates it, as ‘government cannot retreat’.
