Roads Fund Administration (RFA) says it will soon raise toll fees to generate more resources for rehabilitation of tolled roads, construct more tollgates and meet tollgates operational costs.
RFA chief executive officer Stewart Malata disclosed this at a meeting with the Parliamentary Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises on Thursday to explain utilisation of toll fees.
He said the toll rates adjustment should have been effected last December, but there was no motivation for motorists to pay more.
The RFA head feared that if the toll fees are not increased, the business of tolling will not make sense, adding that at the current rate, RFA will just be able to meet operating expenses.
Said Malata: “What has happened now is that operating expenses have gone up. Even on the road that we need to maintain, the maintenance cost has gone up and yet the toll fees in kwacha have remained constant.
“Because what we spend on responds to the exchange rate and inflationary pressures, it actually means the toll fees have taken a different direction. Indeed as has been observed, these need to up.”
He said RFA board has already engaged Treasury on the matter and made recommendations for the adjustment of the toll fees.
Although he could not say the extent of the adjustment being sought, the RFA head said the administration hopes to effect the new rates by the end of this year.
Malata said the fund is struggling to fund rehabilitation of the tolled road, M1, which is over 300 kilometres (km) and in bad shape, with the Roads Authority (RA) recently indicating that almost the entire road needs to be rehabilitated.
Since the toll-gates were launched three years ago, RFA has raised about K11.4 billion which can only cover the rehabilitation of about 6kms of the road and operational costs for the tollgates.
Malata also hinted at a partnership with the private sector to help accelerate construction of additional toll-gates in the country.
In response, Parliamentary Committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprises chairperson Bintony Kutsaira cautioned RFA against being sluggish in making decisions.
“As a government agency, government depends on you to promote development. We want to see government agencies functioning properly and not derailing government plans,” he said.
Committee member Mark Katsonga also faulted RFA for taking too long to adjust the rates, saying for any business to survive, prices have to be adjusted when there are changes in the economy.
He said: “The kwacha has devalued maybe four times if not more, but there has never been any toll-gate fee sincrease to my knowledge.
“What is happening, what type of business is that? If we go to places like retail shops, prices have doubled, over the period of one and half years, but we are not increasing the toll-gate fees.”
Meanwhile, Transporters Association of Malawi president Frank Banda has expressed concern that increasing the toll fees will negatively affect transporters in the country.
In an interview yesterday, he said transporters have already been complaining about low transport rates which do not make business sense.
“It is very unfortunate. It will also disturb our operations, we are already not making profits, we are operating at a loss,” said Banda, who also wondered why transporters are never consulted on such decisions.
Minibus Owners Association of Malawi secretary general Coxley Kamange said it will be unfair to transport operators to have the toll fees increased.
He wondered what RFA is spending money on to justify the adjustment, urging RFA to construct more toll-gates if it wants to generate more revenue.
Observes Kamange: “What they are collecting is enough. Apart from toll fees they are collecting from the fuel levies. What more do they want? Our businesses are already struggling.
“What are they buying because they already bought machines? They are losing nothing from what they are collecting. They are just good at collecting but they are failing to maintain the roads.”
In January 2022, the toll fees were reduced by an average of 40 percent which affected RFA plans to collect more money for road maintenance.
The fees were reduced after motorists protested the initial rates that government had put in place. Since then, the toll fees have not been revised despite several devaluations of the kwacha and rise in cost of maintenance of roads.
Currently, motorist on light vehicles and pick-ups pay K1 000, but the initial rates were K1 700 and K3 400, respectively.
Minibus operators pay K2 000 from the initial proposed amount of K 3 400.
Drivers of passenger vehicles with a capacity of 17 to 31 passengers, two-five tonnes vehicles, 32+ passenger vehicles, and vehicles above five-10 tonnes pay K4 000 from the initial rates of K5 100 for the first three types of vehicles and K7 000 for the vehicles above five-10 tonnes.
Drivers of vehicles above 10 tonnes pay K5 000, down from K8 000, while abnormal load is rated at K20 000 and this rate was not changed.
RFA has cited the lack of funds as the reason for missing its target on construction of toll-gates.
According to RFA, its financial capacity has been heavily affected by non-remittance of the fuel levy which has seen it unable to access over K104 billion from the Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority.
RFA earlier stated that it was banking on the road levy to fund construction of tol-gates.
By now the country should have had five toll-gates. However, construction of the third and fourth toll-gates has stalled despite identifying a contractor and making compensations for both sites, at Naruva in Salima on the M14 and Chileka in Lilongwe on the M12.
