Truck levies reintroduced

THE Road Fund Administration (RFA) has reintroduced amended mass-distance charges as from yesterday, with truck owners expected to do self-assessments of the actual distance travelled within Namibia every year.

This time, truck owners need not pay the charges upfront like last year, when Government made mileage estimates for each vehicle, but on a monthly basis with proof of logbook entries after each month end. The RFA’s Chief Executive Officer, Penda Kiyala, said at the end of last week that the company will announce the first date of payment and verify that all vehicles are listed on their forms.”Once the Road Fund administration is satisfied that the information is in order, it will issue a Mass Distance Charges logbook to the owner or operator for every heavy vehicle indicated on the form.Every logbook will have a specific serial number that will be registered with the Road Fund Administration,” Kiyala said.He said it was up to truck owners to ensure that their drivers keep the logbook and record the distances they travel.Last year, the High Court declared the previous mass-distance charges null and void after the Namibia Road Carriers’ Association (Namroad) challenged Government’s decision to introduce the charges.Namroad argued that although it supported the principle of heavy vehicles paying for the use of Namibia’s roads, the method of collecting such funds that the Road Fund Administration introduced was “draconian and unreasonable”.Proposals by Namroad to collect the same amount of money by using more appropriate instruments were ignored, the association said.”In short, the method of collection as introduced by the Road Fund Administration was nothing other than a massively increased licence fee for Namibian-registered heavy vehicles based on an assumed distance that heavy vehicles would travel in any given year,” Namroad argued.The fee was payable upfront upon the renewal of vehicle licences and would have earned Government an estimated N$100 million a year.Apart from the legal deficiencies of the system, the massive cash-flow impact on the owners of heavy vehicles was devastating, forcing many to borrow money to pay the upfront charge, Namroad claimed.Namroad said the system was flawed in that the owner of a heavy vehicle was allowed to claim back a proportionate refund of fees paid if he could prove at the end of the licence year that the vehicle had not covered the distance assumed by the Road Fund Administration.Kiyala said the charges were reintroduced after the RFA had consulted all relevant parties in the transport sector during the past few months.The RFA’s Chief Executive Officer, Penda Kiyala, said at the end of last week that the company will announce the first date of payment and verify that all vehicles are listed on their forms.”Once the Road Fund administration is satisfied that the information is in order, it will issue a Mass Distance Charges logbook to the owner or operator for every heavy vehicle indicated on the form.Every logbook will have a specific serial number that will be registered with the Road Fund Administration,” Kiyala said.He said it was up to truck owners to ensure that their drivers keep the logbook and record the distances they travel.Last year, the High Court declared the previous mass-distance charges null and void after the Namibia Road Carriers’ Association (Namroad) challenged Government’s decision to introduce the charges.Namroad argued that although it supported the principle of heavy vehicles paying for the use of Namibia’s roads, the method of collecting such funds that the Road Fund Administration introduced was “draconian and unreasonable”.Proposals by Namroad to collect the same amount of money by using more appropriate instruments were ignored, the association said.”In short, the method of collection as introduced by the Road Fund Administration was nothing other than a massively increased licence fee for Namibian-registered heavy vehicles based on an assumed distance that heavy vehicles would travel in any given year,” Namroad argued.The fee was payable upfront upon the renewal of vehicle licences and would have earned Government an estimated N$100 million a year.Apart from the legal deficiencies of the system, the massive cash-flow impact on the owners of heavy vehicles was devastating, forcing many to borrow money to pay the upfront charge, Namroad claimed.Namroad said the system was flawed in that the owner of a heavy vehicle was allowed to claim back a proportionate refund of fees paid if he could prove at the end of the licence year that the vehicle had not covered the distance assumed by the Road Fund Administration.Kiyala said the charges were reintroduced after the RFA had consulted all relevant parties in the transport sector during the past few months.