Truck levies skid to a halt

GOVERNMENT was yesterday dealt a blow when the High Court scrapped the mass distance charges for long-distance trucks that it introduced in June.

Government was hoping to raise around N$100 million a year in road user fees. The Namibia Road Carriers’ Association (Namroad) challenged Government’s decision to introduce the charges on an urgent basis in June after a series of unsuccessful consultations with the Road Fund Administration and other relevant Government departments to find a more reasonable method to collect funds for the maintenance of roads.Namroad, supported by the Namibia Agricultural Union, applied to the High Court on an urgent basis yesterday, and Judge Kato van Niekerk ruled in Namroad’s favour, setting aside the Government notice.’DRACONIAN AND UNREASONABLE’ Namroad said although it supported the principle of heavy vehicles paying for the use of Namibia’s roads, the method of collecting such funds as introduced by the Road Fund Administration was “draconian and unreasonable”.Proposals by Namroad to the Road Fund Administration 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 this upfront charge, Namroad claimed.”It also put the Namibian transport industry at a huge disadvantage against their foreign competitors, who would pay on a proportionate basis for each entry that a foreign vehicle makes into Namibia and therefore did not have to lay out massive amounts of money in advance.”Namroad said the system was flawed in the sense that the owner of a heavy vehicle was allowed to claim back a proportionate refund of the fees paid if he could prove at the end of the licence year that the relevant vehicle did not cover the distance assumed by the Road Fund Administration.Namroad argued that this method left itself open to dangerous abuse and would have been very costly to administer, both for the Road Fund Administration and also for the truck owners.”To add insult to injury, the owner would have to pay a substantial fee to register at the beginning of the year for a possible refund and a further fee should the Road Fund Administration approve the refund at the end of the year,” Namroad said.The association said it was “pleased that once again Namibia’s judicial system proved to be fair and effective and does not hesitate to show organs of Government if and when they err.””It (Namroad) however regrets the waste of valuable man-hours and a massive amount of legal costs, eventually to be footed by the taxpayer, to take this matter to court where it could have been settled much earlier out of court, should the authorities have heeded the advice given by Namroad during the consultative stage.”The High Court judgement gave relief to the road-transport industry at a time when it suffers severely from the ever-increasing cost of fuel.”This relief will assist in controlling the cost of transportation, which at the end of the day is payable by the consumer,” Namroad said.The Namibia Road Carriers’ Association (Namroad) challenged Government’s decision to introduce the charges on an urgent basis in June after a series of unsuccessful consultations with the Road Fund Administration and other relevant Government departments to find a more reasonable method to collect funds for the maintenance of roads.Namroad, supported by the Namibia Agricultural Union, applied to the High Court on an urgent basis yesterday, and Judge Kato van Niekerk ruled in Namroad’s favour, setting aside the Government notice.’DRACONIAN AND UNREASONABLE’ Namroad said although it supported the principle of heavy vehicles paying for the use of Namibia’s roads, the method of collecting such funds as introduced by the Road Fund Administration was “draconian and unreasonable”.Proposals by Namroad to the Road Fund Administration 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 this upfront charge, Namroad claimed.”It also put the Namibian transport industry at a huge disadvantage against their foreign competitors, who would pay on a proportionate basis for each entry that a foreign vehicle makes into Namibia and therefore did not have to lay out massive amounts of money in advance.”Namroad said the system was flawed in the sense that the owner of a heavy vehicle was allowed to claim back a proportionate refund of the fees paid if he could prove at the end of the licence year that the relevant vehicle did not cover the distance assumed by the Road Fund Administration.Namroad argued that this method left itself open to dangerous abuse and would have been very costly to administer, both for the Road Fund Administration and also for the truck owners. “To add insult to injury, the owner would have to pay a substantial fee to register at the beginning of the year for a possible refund and a further fee should the Road Fund Administration approve the refund at the end of the year,” Namroad said.The association said it was “pleased that once again Namibia’s judicial system proved to be fair and effective and does not hesitate to show organs of Government if and when they err.””It (Namroad) however regrets the waste of valuable man-hours and a massive amount of legal costs, eventually to be footed by the taxpayer, to take this matter to court where it could have been settled much earlier out of court, should the authorities have heeded the advice given by Namroad during the consultative stage.”The High Court judgement gave relief to the road-transport industry at a time when it suffers severely from the ever-increasing cost of fuel.”This relief will assist in controlling the cost of transportation, which at the end of the day is payable by the consumer,” Namroad said.