Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) has revealed the outstanding etoll debt for the period up to August this year, and the figures make for rather grim reading.

In total there are more than 3.3 million etoll accounts with outstanding payments and according to ETC, which is the company responsible for collecting tolls in partnership in Sanral, the outstanding total amount is roughly R5.9 billion.

Furthermore, the ETC says that private companies with fleets of vehicles account for the lion’s share of the outstanding debt. Business Day reports that those companies are among the 17% of the entities that owe 81% of unpaid tolls.

According to Independent Media, the single largest outstanding etoll bill is R20 million, and it’s owed by a private transport company.

While ETC wouldn’t name the company in question, Chief Operations Officer Mark Ridgeway revealed that, “…it is a really big player in the transport industry and is running hundreds of vehicles on a daily and monthly basis.”

In a bid to encourage etoll users to pay at least something towards the use of the tolled routes, deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa outlined a “new dispensation” back in May, which offered motorists a 60% discount on any outstanding etoll fees as well as a lowered monthly cap. That new dispensation kicked in on 2nd July of this year.

Motorists have until the end of April 2016 to take advantage of the discount, which applies to any unpaid etoll debt accrued between 3rd December 2013 and 31st August 2015.