Roads Authority revenue at K34 billion

Following the public sector reforms instituted by the government in 2015, the Roads Fund Administration (RFA) has seen its revenue growing from K12 billion to K34 billion in 2017.

The government approved four reform areas to be implemented by the RFA.

The year on year revenue growth registered in the 2015/16 financial year grew by 71 percent while in the 2016/17 revenue increased by 32 percent.

Responding to a questionnaire, RFA publicist, Masauko Mngwaluko, said, out of the four reform areas, three have been successfully implemented.

“All mechanisms are in place to ensure sustained implementation. Already, these reforms have resulted in revenues increasing from K12 billion in 2015 to K34 billion in 2017. Road works expenditure almost tripled,” he said.

He said the four reform areas which include introduction of road access fees for foreign registered saloons crossing borders into Malawi, introduction of automated fuel levy adjustment system, introduction of roads fund bond and automate payment systems—are under implementation, except for the road tolling reform.

Mngwaluko said implementation of the road toll ways needed a feasibility study first.

“The feasibility study was conducted and the results showed that, currently, it is not feasible to toll our roads because of low traffic volumes,” he said.

He said if toll ways were to be implemented, it meant subsidies would be required to subsidise operating costs for some years if RFA had decided to enter into a Public Private Partnership arrangement, as suggested by other quarters.

“This would be defeating the purpose of tolling, which is to collect more revenues. However, the RFA is exploring possibilities of doing it alone without a private partner,” Mngwaluko said.

The objective of the road tolls is to diversify and provide an alternative source of raising revenue for the Roads Fund.

The fund is only collecting from two sources of fuel levy and international transit fees from foreign registered trucks.