by Christopher Makaza
The Zimbabwe National Road Administration (ZINARA) is reportedly proposing to hike road user charges which include toll fees, vehicle licencing fees as well as overload and abnormal load fees, citing inflationary pressure bedevilling the economy.
A contact within ZINARA revealed that the proposed increase would assist the parastatal to meet its revenue budgetary target of Z$1.2 billion by end of December 2020.
ZINARA `s last review was made in December 2019.
According to the contact, the parastatal wants to increase the road user fees by 100 percent, in addition, it proposes that the licence fees be paid in forex following the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)`s directive of 30 March which gave a green light for people with free funds to pay for goods and services in forex.
Contact said toll fees which were last reviewed in August 2019 could be hiked by almost 300%. He said the floating of the exchange rate had eroded the current toll fees in the foreign exchange terms.
“We are proposing to hike the toll fees as follows; light motor vehicles from $10 to $30, Commuter Omnibus from $15 to $40, buses from $20 to $50, heavy vehicles from $25 to $125 while haulage trucks will pay $250 from $50,” revealed the contact.
A contact said ZINARA also proposed to review residential discount from $10 to $60.Residential discount is offered to motorist who live within the proximity of the tollgate and uses it almost on daily basis.
On overload and abnormal fees, ZINARA intends to increase the fees to only locally registered vehicles while foreign registered vehicles will be charged in hard currency.
The registration fees for local abnormal vehicles are set to increase from $100 to $2 500 whilst super abnormal load will be increased from $6 to $150 per kilometre.
Abnormal size permit will also be reviewed from $430 to $750.
Economic analysts said although ZINARA, like any other parastatal sectors of the country, was being affected by inflation, it was not prudent for it to increase the road user fees at this point in time, when the country was busy fighting the deadly COVID-19 which had grossly affected the livelihoods of many Zimbabweans.
They implored Government to shelf this kind of proposal for now, considering that road users are currently not generating income due to the on-going national lockdown.
Government is coming up with measures to cushion citizens in these hard times. Cabinet has recently recommended Presidential Regulations imposing a moratorium on evictions of tenants who might have delayed settling their rental obligations to their landlords, a development which came as a relief to tenants.
Last week Government and business agreed to place, a price moratorium, which will see prices revert to the level they were on March 25. The price increases of basic commodities had shot up beyond the reach of many during the first 21-days of the COVID-19 lockdown.
