South Africa to start collecting road charges at Beitbridge post

THE South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) is due to start levying road charges on traffic coming from Zimbabwe at Beitbridge, the Business Day reported.

Sanral spokesman Vusi Mona explained that a bilateral agreement entered into by the two countries in 1994 stated that each state would be responsible for collecting the respective road charges.

"Sanral is now carrying out its contractual obligation. There will no longer be tolls but road charges, as happens at many borders between two countries," he said.

Sanral was conducting studies on the number of vehicles crossing the border and could not speculate on how much it would collect in revenue, Mr Mona said.

The South African Revenue Service (SARS) was still considering whether it would help in collecting the road charges as it already collected other taxes and duties at the border and had the infrastructure to assist.

This would be a determining factor in whether Sanral would have to build new infrastructure at Beitbridge to collect the south-bound road charges.

"SARS will, in due course, meet with Sanral to discuss the way forward," spokesman Sandile Memela said.