Zambia is looking at raising an additional $94 500 a day through instituting toll gate fees for foreign-registered vehicles already paying a once-off entry-and-exit tariff of $160 000 a day.
Moreover, nothing has been said about the new tariff replacing the once-off charge for inbound and outbound traffic.
This emerged after the National Road Fund Agency (NRFA) in Lusaka informed the logistics industry of the fares it would implement per toll gate on five classes of vehicle: larger private small vehicles (PSV) up to 3.5 tonnes including 15-seat minibus taxis, PSVs up to 6.5t tonnes including larger minibus taxis, medium heavy vehicles, heavy trucks, and abnormal rigs.
The respective tolls, effective from 19 October, will be 20, 40, 50, 150, and 500 kwacha.
Considering that there were about six to seven toll gates spread throughout the country, it would net the Zambian government $94 500 per day on top of the daily $160 they were already charging through-traffic cross-border vehicles entering and leaving the landlocked country, said Mike Fitzmaurice, chief executive of the Federation of East and Southern African Road Transport Associations (Fesarta).
“This is all about revenue collection, nothing else. What’s more is that the roads don’t warrant it. The roads in Zambia are in a shocking condition. So what are we really paying for?”
Fitzmaurice said a Fesarta official would be meeting with the NRFA about the tolls which would no doubt add yet more costs to the North-South Corridor in and out of the Copperbelt between Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
