The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) says there is no reason for the delay in the scrapping of e-tolls. This is after the Gauteng government said there is still no agreement with National Treasury to conclude the deactivation of the e-toll system- which was supposed to have happened on 31 December 2022.
The decision to scrap e-tolls was announced by Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana during his mid-term budget, where he said the national government would take over 70% of the debt leaving the rest to the provincial government.
CEO of OUTA Wayne Duvenage says they’ve had more than two months to finalise the matters between province and national government.
“We cannot understand why this hasn’t happened- this is quite frustrating- especially for businesses that are paying. There is a low percentage of people that are paying. Obviously, there’s a gazette process as well that needs to happen, and that could have all been done in the last two month, but for some reason this procrastination, this ineptitude, this indecisiveness just continues,” Duvenage criticises.
In a tweet, OUTA encouraged those still paying their e-tolls to cease doing so.
MUST READ: Until the MOU is concluded between @GautengProvince and @GovernmentZA the gazette wont be published and @SANRAL_za will continue charging #etolls. We suggest the few who continue to contribute towards this defunct scheme stop doing so now.https://t.co/el7n4zJkVi
— OUTA (@OUTASA) January 2, 2023
Gauteng’s new premier, Panyaza Lesufi, announced the abandoning of the e-toll system in the province in November as one of his first acts as the provincial head.
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