News / National
Tollgates rake in $80m
23 Mar 2014 at 09:11hrs | Views
TollGates have generated over $78 million since their introduction in 2009, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development, Mr Munesu Munodawafa, has disclosed.
He said 98 percent of the money was ploughed back into road maintenance, adding that this process of channelling the bulk of the money to road maintenance and construction has continued despite the transfer of toll fee collection duties from the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority to the Zimbabwe National Road Administration.
"The tollgates have so far generated $78 million and only 2 percent of that money was used for administration with the rest going into road development," said Mr Munodawafa.
"However, it must be noted that it costs between $850 000 and $1,2 million to do a kilometre of a new road and this explains the slow progress in terms of roads rehabilitation. Since the introduction of tollgates, there has been an improvement in the condition of our highways, although not yet to the expectations of Government and motorists."
Mr Munodawafa disclosed that the computerisation of tollgates has helped plug leakages that were being caused by some corrupt officials.
"We have seen revenue from some of them (tollgates) almost doubling since computerisation so we are happy with the performance," he said.
Mr Munodawafa added that there are ongoing consultations aimed at coming up with the best methods of improving existing tollgates.
"There are internal consultations within Government as the issue cuts across a number of ministries.
"Government will make an announcement on the way forward at the appropriate time through our ministry. The ministry is not going to source funds for the construction of tollgates, the Government is going to do it alone," he said.
He said 98 percent of the money was ploughed back into road maintenance, adding that this process of channelling the bulk of the money to road maintenance and construction has continued despite the transfer of toll fee collection duties from the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority to the Zimbabwe National Road Administration.
"The tollgates have so far generated $78 million and only 2 percent of that money was used for administration with the rest going into road development," said Mr Munodawafa.
"However, it must be noted that it costs between $850 000 and $1,2 million to do a kilometre of a new road and this explains the slow progress in terms of roads rehabilitation. Since the introduction of tollgates, there has been an improvement in the condition of our highways, although not yet to the expectations of Government and motorists."
"We have seen revenue from some of them (tollgates) almost doubling since computerisation so we are happy with the performance," he said.
Mr Munodawafa added that there are ongoing consultations aimed at coming up with the best methods of improving existing tollgates.
"There are internal consultations within Government as the issue cuts across a number of ministries.
"Government will make an announcement on the way forward at the appropriate time through our ministry. The ministry is not going to source funds for the construction of tollgates, the Government is going to do it alone," he said.
Source - Sunday Mail
