Sanral rubbishes reports of cash-flow problems

The South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) has said an impression that the entity is experiencing a cash-flow problem is erroneous.

In a press statement released last week, Sanral said it is true that only some nine percent of non-registered road users pay after the seven day grace period has expired.

However, compliance of non-registered users before the seven day grace period expires is at 35 percent.

Sanral said it has 1.2-million registered e-tag users and collection from these “is going fine”.

The agency collected R250.8-million during February.

The statement issued also contained the following statement: “By the way, Sanral is not laying off staff, neither is the service provider CTC. A sub-contractor to ETC is laying off temporary staff because the work they were contracted to do has been completed (sic).”

“There is no cash-flow problem but possibly a misunderstanding,” said Sanral’s financial officer, Ms Inge Mulder.

“In fact, we are satisfied with both registrations and payments made by non-registered users. We have always trusted that the public will do the right thing and pay. This high level of compliance has also meant that we are on track to meet our debt obligations,” she said.

According to Sanral, by February 28 the total revenue transferred to the Violations Processing Centre was R543 544 574, of which R50 043 487 was paid, representing 9.21 percent.

“This revenue is the total amount invoiced to road users that have not paid within the seven day grace period, excluding any discounts that may be eligible at the date of the report,” said Ms Mulder.

Timing of payment has an impact on the amount payable as the different discounts available, changes.

The discounts available to users after the seven day grace period, are as follows:

Payment after seven days but before 30 days, receives a 60 percent discount

Payment after 30 days but before 60 days, receives a 30 percent discount

If a user registers simultaneously, he or she will receive a further 6.67 percent discount. This effectively brings the tariff back to the standard tariff if paid within 30 days.

“Even though this means a road user can pay within 30 days and still only pay the standard tariff, he or she loses all the other discounts that apply to an e-tag registered user,” said Ms Mulder.