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‘Big NO!’, says Outa about Mbalula’s plan to hit road users with new ‘driving tax’
As if the recent fuel price hikes haven't been enough, government is proposing a new driving tax. Here's what you need to know:
The draft already attracted the ire of the Organisation for Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa). Photo: iStock
A proposed driving tax set out by the Department of Transport has attracted criticism for expecting to squeeze even more money from the country’s already cash-strapped motorists.
According to an adjusted version of the Department’s White Paper Policy document, the proposal involves sourcing additional funding for a so-called “traffic management levy”.
The Citizen reached out to Automobile Association spokesperson, Layton Beard, who said the AA was aware of the proposed document.
Beard said: “We are still busy studying that with a view to understanding the details of what is being proposed. We wouldn’t want to comment until we’ve finalised that process.”
Traffic management levy to help improve driver discipline
This new levy will supposedly be added to current vehicle licences and fuel taxes, with the department saying the introduction of a traffic-management levy will be investigated.
It said road funding requires “a more balanced approach”, thus, increased funding should be made available for the improved utilisation of existing resources.
Additional funding strategies will be looked at, such as the allocation of a percentage of the roads budget “for traffic control purposes”.
The department “justified” the tax by saying it will be to the advantage of this new management system.
Without this “new system”, the department is incapable of “effecting a more drastic improvement in road user discipline and reducing collisions”.
Fines
The white paper also promised to improve the collection of fines and procedures relating to, as opposed to fines “accruing to individual authorities and general state or provincial revenue.”
“For this purpose, dedicated national and provincial road-traffic management funds will be considered”, the department said.
“The development, implementation and operation of incident management plans would improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the services rendered and minimise reaction times,” it added.
A ‘big no’ from Outa
While still to be implemented, the draft attracted the ire of the Organisation for Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa), who said the new tax is “a BIG NO”.
“SA is overtaxed as is. These additional taxes [are] usually lost through wasteful expenditure [and] lack of objectives. RTMC already collect ‘driving’ tax,” the organisation said.
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Motorists agreed. One netizen known only as Bibz said South Africans won’t tolerate another additional levy.
“Government ‘chased’ away thousands of taxpayers; time to make government work for their salaries. Remove all perks, subsidies, reduce salaries and let’s see how they fare”.
Another user was slightly more creative, saying she has only two words for Mbalula:
A third was slightly more pragmatic:
The white paper can be read below:
Compiled by Charl Bosch and Cheryl Kahla.
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