‘Fine’ tax just adds insult to injury

Civil society organisations are correct in launching a campaign to challenge the latest move by the government to further bleed its citizens, through levying an “administrative” fee of R100 each on all traffic fines.

Our political overlords have experience in this: our personal income tax already accounts for a significant chunk of government revenue and if they don’t nail us there, they do through value-added tax and the various “sin taxes” on booze and smokes. We’ve learned, to our cost, that the taxes we do reluctantly hand over don’t often end up where they should – so many of us pay for private medical care, private security and private schooling.

And, some years ago, another “stealth tax” was brought in through the e-toll system, which claimed that paying to drive on Gauteng’s refurbished highways was adhering to the principle of “user pays” … never mind that some of that revenue was to provide other, non-Gauteng, road users with their roads.

The plans by the Road Traffic Infringement Agency to levy the “surcharge” are nothing more than another tax, another way for the government to raise money. Motorists have until the end of the year to object and a protest petition was launched this week by the Automobile Association of South Africa.

The AA points out that the logistics costs of the Administrative Adjudication of Traffic Offences laws and regulations should be met entirely through fine income. Charging people a levy, argues the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa), is tantamount to asking people to pay to submit their tax returns … insult on top of injury would be a good way to put it.

This levy proposal follows on the heels of the SA Broadcasting Corporation’s one to charge licences for all electronic devices with a screen. What next? A tax on the air we breathe?

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.