Largest e-toll bill ever! R20m outstanding!
A transport company has accrued an e-toll bill of over R20 million for the use of Gauteng roads, taking place from December 2013 until August this year!
The chief operations officer of Electronic Tolling Company, Mark Ridgway, stated that this was the largest e-toll bill, debt build-up on GFIP e-toll system to date!
He went on to explain,
“It is a really big player in the transport industry and is running hundreds of vehicles on a daily and monthly basis.”
He further added that there are a number of other companies, who are listed on the JSE that have not disclosed the value of their e-toll bill, to their shareholders!
The chief executive of Electronic Tolling Company, Jamie Surkont, said that its responsibility is to collect this e-toll bill debt. Explaining that there is a significant amount of money, typically commercially orientated, that is still owed.
He went on to say that if the GFIP e-toll system were to fail, the government would have to bail the project out. This could have a long term impact on the country’s sovereign credit ratings and stunt future growth and development of the roads in South Africa.
Approximately R5.9 billion in e-toll bill debt is believed to be outstanding, at the 60% discounted rate! The Electronic Tolls Company will be trying to collect as much of this e-toll bill debt as possible, before the cut-off date on 2 May 2016.
“The historical debt up to 31 August is ring-fenced and there is a window of opportunity. But if you don’t pay within six months, you lose the 60 percent discount on the historical outstanding debt.”
Around 81% of the total discounted e-toll bill debt, (R5.9 billion) was owed by only 17% of the 518 000 account holders.
They have set up a task force to collect the outstanding debt and have also brought in some experts to help them with the tactical approach.
The South African National Roads Agency Limited, will ultimately determine the strategy used for e-toll bill debt collection. Things like blocking the renewal of a vehicle’s license for unpaid fines, is not something they can enforce themselves.
Looking at the top 20 000 accounts with an outstanding e-toll bill -the average monthly value amounted to around R3 715, with an average balance of R78 000.
Among these are big fleets and commercial operations, representing around 22% of the total discounted R5.9 billion debt value. Ridgway added,
“That is a very workable number in terms of collecting debt.”
Source: IOL