Sanral clarifies Winelands funding model

After months of speculation and misinformation about the funding model to be used on the N1 N2 Winelands Toll road project, the South African National Road Agency (Sanral) has clarified aspects of the funding.

Briefing the media, Western Cape Regional Manager, Kobus van der Walt, said the initial cost of works would be R10bn which is just R2bn short of Sanral's total allocation per annum.

"The notion that Sanral should fund this project from its own resources is therefore uninformed. This year we received a total allocation of R12.5bn to look after the entire national road network. Clearly we cannot take all of it to do one project in one province."

There has also been an argument that instead of tolling, the fuel levy should be used to fund the project. However, Van der Walt demonstrated that motorists already get back in full their fuel levy through what the National Treasury allocates to roads. "In 2014/15 National Treasury collected R46bn in fuel levies and R7.2bn in vehicle licence fees which makes a total of R53.2bn. In turn what was allocated to roads was R44bn across the three spheres of government; R4.9bn on public transport infrastructure, R7.1bn on bus subsidies and R266m on road traffic management. The total expenditure was R56.3bn. There was therefore a subsidy of R3.1bn coming from the fiscus."

Van der Walt also pointed out that the Western Cape is the only province that has permission from National Treasury to implement a fuel levy to finance roads, but it has not been implemented to date.

He also clarified the issue of the debt associated with the Huguenot Tunnel. "There is still an outstanding debt of close to R1.9bn on the tunnel".

Concerning the allegation by the City of Cape Town that the concessionaire stands to make a profit of R48bn over the concession period, Van der Walt said the City was confusing revenue with profit and ignoring the capital and operational expenditure. There would be interest to be paid on the debt raised.

He concluded by pointing out Sanral had always invited the City to come forward with finding alternative methods but to date it hadn't come forward with any.