Gauteng motorists who were paying for e-tolls are due for a refund.This was confirmed by Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi in an interview with 702. Lesufi said that the system will be scrapped and a refund of R6.9 million will be returned to 17% of Gauteng drivers who were e-toll compliant.

DEACTIVATION DELAYED

Late last month, Lesufi announced that the deactivation of the e-toll system would be delayed into the new year. At the time, Lesufi said the delay was caused by the province having not reached an agreement with the National Treasury. "There is a process that needs to be followed by the government, so the technical team led by our director-general," Lesufi said then. The National Treasury also said that it needed more time to finalise important details of the agreement, including settling a debt  of more than R40 billion that South African National Road Agency (Sanral) is faced with due to non-payment. 

REFUND METHOD 

Lesufi says a decision still has to be taken on the method that will be used to make the refunds. He said all unanswered questions would be clarified in his upcoming State of the Province address. Sanral struggled to recover the  costs of the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project through e-tolls because many motorists did not comply and failed to pay them. The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) lashed at the government for  the delay in finalising the deactivating of  e-tolls, but Lesufi said there were financial and tax implications for the province which need to be sorted out. 

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