FINANCE and National Planning Minister Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane says the country has collected a total of K6.383 billion in toll revenues from 2016 to August 2021.

And Dr Musokotwane says under the PF government, contracts for road construction were just given out anyhow like they were buying each other beer, hence the $1 billion debt owed to road contractors.

Responding to a question in Parliament from Mufumbwe UPND MP Elliot Kamondo on how much money was collected countrywide as toll fees, from 2016 to August 2021 and which toll plaza collected the highest amount, Dr Musokotwane said Katuba Toll plaza collected the highest amount since 2016.

“I wish to inform this August House that a total of K6. 383 billion was collected in toll revenues from 2016 to August 2021. The year by year breakdown is as follows; 2016, number of toll stations were 17, the amount of money collected was K465 million; in 2017 the toll stations had increased to 24 and the amount collected was K668 million; in the year 2018 number of toll stations was 25, the amount collected was K909 million; in 2019 the number of toll stations was 34 and the amount collected was K1.212 billion,” he said.

“In 2020 the number of toll stations had increased to 36 and the amount of money collected was K1.551 billion; for the period of 2021 January to August, the number of toll stations had increased to 37 and the amount collected was K1.578 billion. Madam Speaker, the toll plaza which has collected the highest amounts since 2016 is the Katuba toll plaza. As of August 2021 there was no toll station under construction.”

Dr Musokotwane said the money collected from toll fees was not enough to meet the challenges the road sector faced.

“All the money collected goes back to the road sector to repair roads and construct roads. The money collected from tolls is obviously of a limited amount, it has been increasing as we have been seeing. Now this year, it is expected that K2.2 billion will be collected by the end of this year. However, Madam Speaker, when you look at the needs of the road sector, they are far beyond what is being collected. So, it is necessary that funding outside the tolls i.e submission for the tax avenues in general, financing from both inside and outside, those extra finances would be required to complement what is being collected under the tolls to be able to deal with all aspects of roads, that is construction, repair and maintenance,” the Minister said.

“As of now what is being collected in tolls is not enough. I must also add, Madam Speaker, the pressure to construct new roads of course that also increases the demand for repairs because the more roads you construct, the more you need to spend on maintenance and repairs. Therefore going forward, as soon as we get some kind of debt relief, more money can be added for road construction to complement what is being constructed.”

When asked whether the UPND government had plans to reduce the toll fees, Dr Musokotwane said government had no such plans.

“I don’t think we promised to reduce the toll fees, I am hearing that for the first time. Honourable members, there are serious problems with these roads. So there are no plans like that,” he said.

And Dr Musokotwane says under the PF government, contracts for road construction were just given out anyhow, hence the $1 billion debt owed to road contractors.

“Madam Speaker, the issue of non-payment of contractors is something that I have referred to in the past days. Under the previous government, there was no control, contracts were just given anyhow without taking a look at whether there was ability to pay. As of now, I think there is about $1 billion in arrears to road contractors. How did that arise? Because people were just giving out contracts like they were buying each other bottles of beer. So there is a problem now, but we are going to deal with that. We shall make announcements of measures that are being taken to dismantle those arrears, but it will take time because care and due diligence was never made when these contracts were being given out,” said Dr Musokotwane.