If you’re a Gauteng motorist who hasn’t taken advantage of the 60% discount to settle your historic etolls debt yet, you may have the Electronic Tolling Company (ETC) knocking with a summons on behalf of Sanral, in the coming weeks.
That’s the news from ETC today, which is announced at a briefing to discuss the discount dispensation.
“We are in the process right now, of issuing summons,” Mark Ridway COO of ETC said. “Some of those summons will go to the High Court because the amount owed is over R400 000, even after the discount. Other summons will go to the Magistrate’s Court.”
At this stage, Ridway said, he civil action will not be taken against all non-payers, but only towards those who have, through their behaviours, shown that they trefuse to pay and comply.
“Some people have said they will never pay, other have not responded, these groups are our top priority for civil action,” Ridgway said.
Ridgway also said that the organisation is looking at how etoll debts will affect the sale of vehicle against which outstanding tolls are accrued. He suggested that ETC is currently deploying a system of “vehicle listing“, in co-ordination with the motor industry, whereby tolls are accumulated against a licence plate rather than an individual. With an outstanding fine as an “encumbrance” against the vehicle’s registration it will create issues for anyone trying to sell a car with an outstanding bill as the new owner would have to accept it as a liability.
“One of the tools that’s being employed is a vehicle listing,” Ridgway said, “A listing of a vehicle is a listing of the vehicle that says the motor vehicle you own has an encumbrance attached to it… that is similar to a finance house saying you owe R50 000 on your car when you go to trade it in and that must be settled before you sell it.
“The main push for this came out of the dealership networks and the motor industry. They said the administrative burden of tolling because people bought cars in with tolls outstanding… was so onerous that we had to do this.”
Ridgway underlined the significance of this.
“Are we listing the person, no, we’re listing the vehicle.”
Whether this encumbrance would be applied by ETC and Sanral or via the courts was unclear, although it would likely be applied only via court order.
“We’ve seen that once we inform people of that [civil action and vehicle listing] they generally change their minds, some of them, and come to us to make an arrangement to pay,” Ridgway said.
ETC emphasised the fact that paying etolls is a legal obligation and that non-compliance will lead to consequences.
“If you don not engage with us, there are consequences and the consequences are dire,” Ridgway said.
Ridgway further added that although non-payers are in the minority, they make up the largest portion of debt owed to Sanral and that the cost of chasing after non-payers eventually drives up the invoice costs incurred by ETC, Sanral and ultimately, the tax payer.
“This is why the majority of compliant payers are demanding action against non-payers,” he said.
ETC said the most indebted non-payers are companies, whose debt runs into millions of rands. The most indebted is an unnamed transport company which ETC said owes R26 million.
The top five most indebted companies have made arrangements and will be clearing their debt this week, according to Ridgway.
The 60% discount dispensation ends of the 1st May 2016.
“Time is running out, South Africans are typically last minute payers, but if you don’t take advantage of the 60% discount, your historic debt goes back to the original amount,” ETC CEO, Jamie Surkont said.
