The introduction by the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) of an online vehicle and driver’s licensing system has been welcomed as a step in the right direction, but the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) has warned that the massive increases in the cost slapped onto these services are unacceptable.
“Moving into the digital age and providing services through online portals is supposed to reduce the costs to customers, not increase them,” says Andrea van Heerden, Outa senior legal project manager.
“It’s all very well to say that you can now have your vehicle change of ownership done from the comfort of your home, but the cost of doing so has moved from around R150 to R530, plus another R99 courier fee, which is nothing but a rip-off and an unacceptable money-making scheme.
“Imagine the outrage if the banking industry told its customers that transacting online would cost them 300% more than the charges applied if they came into the bank for their services. This behaviour would generate customer outrage, as the efficiencies recovered by moving into a digital space would not be passed on to the customer. The question we have for the minister of transport is: “Why are you allowing the RTMC to introduce massive service fees which are essentially ‘additional taxes’ to society, and passing these off as ‘convenience fees’?”
Van Heerden believes that there are many government departments where services that society once received free or at minimal cost are now being turned into profit centres. “This is specifically the case with the RTMC, the Road Traffic Infringement Agency (RTIA), the Driving Licence Card Account (DCLA), and more. When these entities start to generate excessive revenue streams, they find ways to spend this money. While he was the CEO of RTIA, Japh Chuwe was allowed to increase his salary from an already high R3.3 million a year to R10.8 million in one year. With massive increases in new revenue streams accruing to these state-owned entities, they find creative ways to spend this money, essentially becoming new breeding grounds for more corruption and maladministration”.
Outa has objected to these new “administration” fees proposed by the Department of Transport in the notices gazetted last year. “However, in the final version issued in January, the department simply reduced the fees slightly and forced these costs into the system, without any explanation as to why these additional fees should be applied in the first place. An online fee should not be higher than the fee charged at the offices; rather, the online fees should be substantially lower,” Van Heerden adds.
