Over R20m in cross-border permit refunds paid out

Road freight operators
have been refunded more
than R20 million in crossborder
permit refunds.
According to a
spokesman for the Road
Freight Association (RFA),
these payments were made
as part of the first round of
refunds.
“The second round of
claims have already been
submitted, but we have
been advised by the Cross-
Border Road Transport
Agency (C-BRTA) that
payment will not be
immediate and the first
instalments will only be
made in July,” he said.
Payments are expected
to be made over three
months in equal
instalments.
The C-BRTA has to
verify each payment being
made and, as it involves
huge amounts of cash, the
entire
process
will be
managed
over a
period
of time.
Cash will
therefore
be paid
out in
sections
to
manage
any
possible
cash f low
problems.
The payments follow a
lengthy court process dating
back several years. In 2014,
the C-BRTA was ordered
by the high court to refund
monies paid for permits on
a higher tariff rate.
The court found that the
tariffs being charged to
operators were not
correct and that
operators were
only liable for
the tariff rates
that existed
before April
2011.
The
C-BRTA
appealed
this
order
and the
matter
was taken to
the Constitutional
Court in 2015 where the
agency was again ordered
to pay out operators.
The more than
R20 million paid out
to operators to date is
therefore in accordance
with the judgements.
It is not known how
much is still outstanding
but the RFA has calculated
that around R320 million
has to be reimbursed
to cross-border freight
operators in total.
According to the
spokesman, while
the agency was now
reimbursing operators,
it had already come
up with a new revenue
funding scheme to fund its
shortfall and had been
charging for penalties for
outstanding permits and
consignment notes
without following the
prescriptions of the
Criminal Procedure Act
in terms of prosecuting
offences.
The RFA had taken the
matter up with the C-BRTA,
said the spokesman.