Suspending the motor vehicle licences of motorists with outstanding e-toll debts, as reportedly favoured by the South African National Roads Agency’s (Sanral), would cause great economic disruption, undermine South Africa’s prospects for recovery, and place an even greater tax burden on distressed households and businesses, says the IRR.
This warning is contained in a letter which the IRR delivered to Sanral today as part of the institute’s ongoing #StopCitizenAbuse campaign.
According to the IRR, research shows that the tax burden on South Africans has risen to the highest levels in the history of the country and that many families pay more than half their income towards taxes, levies and secondary and tertiary taxes.
It argues that, instead of seeking to extract even more money from households, the government must move towards introducing structural reforms, and remove corrupt officials from the public service and prosecute them and their enablers in the private sector.
The IRR urges any motorists whose vehicle licences are denied because of non-payment of e-tolls to get in touch so that it can use such examples to place pressure on the Presidency and on politicians to intervene and stop the abuse of motorists.
[Image: JMK, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=35862972]