The South African national road agency (Sanral) has received R5.6 billion less e-tolls than budgeted, mainly because the government has no clarity about the future of the system, the Parliament has heard.
Briefing from the permanent commission for credits on Tuesday, Deputy Director-General for Public Finances of the Treasury. Mampho Modise emphasized the financial position of various entities for the financial year 2017/18.
Sanral had a positive cash position of R7.6 billion, which was 38% less than the R12.3 billion that had been budgeted. Modise explained that during the course of the year, Sanral had difficulty raising the budgeted e-toll revenue of R20.6 billion.
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"The noise around e-toll affects Sanral's performance," Modise said, adding, "The figures do not look good for Sanral."
Due to the inability to extract the necessary funds from e-toll, Sanral is hampered in its ability to finance the maintenance of non-toll roads, with a lower limit of R605 million on the road maintenance program for these roads, according to the report of the treasure chest.
"What this entity needs is the enforcement of a government decision about what is going to happen or what needs to be done with e-toll.
Once that has happened, there will be some confidence in what the government intends to do with e-tolling, "Modise said.
Without clear government decisions about the future of e-toll, Sanral finds it difficult to go to the market to borrow money to finance it.
Transport minister Blade Nzimande told the Portfolio Committee on Transport in April that he is concerned about the financing of the development of the road infrastructure, in particular the financing of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project or e-toll collection, which is a major problem. 39; is.
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"We will have to come up with a strategy to sustainably finance road building and maintenance programs", he said.
At the Tuesday briefing, the Treasury also expressed concern about the financial position of the Road Accident Fund (RAF) and the Passenger Rail Agency in South Africa (Prasa).
The available cash of Prasa at the end of the financial year was 12.3% more than expected at R13.8 billion, but the Treasury said that this was due to a lack of expenditure on the train passenger's maintenance and capital program. Net cash flow from investing activities was 48.5% or R6.6 billion lower than expected.
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Treasury and the transport department work together with the entity to accelerate the expenditure on projects. If that is not the case, the Treasury will reduce the allocations to Prasa, Modise warned.
The RAF on the other hand is struggling to keep track of the claims it receives because they weigh more than the income it receives from the fuel contribution for traffic accidents. The tax was increased this year by 30c per liter, but even these funds can only cover pending claims and not the backlog, Modise said.
The cash available to the RAF at the end of the year was R114.2 million less than the R1.68 billion that had been budgeted. – Fin24
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