Politics and policy
Motorists on Thika Road. Toll fees may be reintroduced on certain roads to pay for maintenance. PHOTO | FILE
By KIARIE NJOROGE, gkiarie@ke.nationmedia.com
In Summary
- Motorists face pain as highway tolls could be added to the increased fuel levy.
Motorists face more pain following the publication of
a new Bill that sets the stage for introduction of fees for use of
highways and county roads.
The Bill is seeking to reintroduce the toll fee on major
national roads as motorists prepare to pay an additional Sh3 for every
litre of fuel, which will next month push petrol above the Sh100 mark
for the first time since August 2013.
The proposed law also seeks to introduce a road
user charge on other national and county roads that will be based on
distance travelled and vehicle weight.
“The Cabinet secretary, in consultation with the
Authority may declare a national trunk road or a portion thereof as a
national toll road,” reads a section of the Kenya Roads Bill, 2015.
“The Cabinet secretary responsible for finance may,
in consultation with the Cabinet secretary (responsible for roads) make
regulations authorising imposition and collection of road user charges
by the authority in respect of roads, including national and county
roads,” it adds.
The fate of small personal vehicles will, however,
rest with the Treasury secretary who will have the power to set a
minimum weight for vehicles to be charged.
“The regulations made under this section may
provide for charges related to the weight of the vehicle, including
exemption from charges for vehicles below a minimum weight,” the Bill
adds.
Cars liable for the fee will need to be fitted with
distance recorders for calculating the fee. Parliament will have the
final say on the regulations guiding the payment of the road charges.
The regulations will offer clarity on how the roads use fee will be
administered.
The introduction of the charges will see motorists
pay three different fees for maintenance of roads, including the fuel
levy, toll charge and roads user charge.
New Zealand levies a road user charge but this is
only for vehicles that do not pay a fuel levy. All vehicles that use
petrol and those that use diesel but weigh less than 3,500 kilogrammes
pay a fuel levy.
Motorists who pay a road user charge are required
to buy a distance licence which are in units of 1,000 kilometres. Kenya
has been toying with the idea of re-introducing the toll fees on certain
roads to cater for their maintenance costs.
Infrastructure Principal Secretary John Mosonik in
January had said there were plans to contract a transaction adviser on
the plan to implement the toll stations scheme.
Mr Mosonik said that Mombasa-Nairobi-Nakuru
highway, Thika Road and Southern by-pass were to be the first roads
targeted under this scheme.
The road toll fees was introduced in the 1980s but was scrapped in favour of the fuel levy.
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