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Taxes, fuel prices, levies, tolls and now renewal fees - the increases are battering South African motorists. The Department of Transport has announced a hike in our compulsory annual licence renewal fees for sometime this year. Let's take a look at how much extra we'll have to fork out.
The Department of Transport is having a busy week. Not only has Minister of Transport, Blade Nzimande, announced that the department will be wasting R5.6 billion of its mid-term budget to fund the failing e-toll system, but we’re also getting an increase in car licence fees.
This was confirmed by a government gazette, in which the minister announced a 14% increase in the transaction fees to be paid to the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC).
As per the lovely Road Traffic Management Corporation Act, all local registering authorities – such as licencing centres, the post office, etc. – have to pay the RTMC a transaction fee for each and every motorist it processes.
And, of course, this fee is offloaded onto the applicant, when it is added to the annual licence renewal fee. Nice.
According to the department, the fees will increase from R72 to R82 this year, with no implementation date yet provided.
Can You Feel It Yet? Does It Burn?
With relentless fuel price increases, electricity tariff increases, Road Accident Fund levy increases, Fuel levy increases, Toll Fee increases, the recent VAT increase and the introduction of yet another tax – the Carbon Tax – South Africans are starting to feel a little bit abused.
With regards to the RTMC transaction fee increase, 14% might not seem like a lot. It’s only R10, some will say, and it’s only the second such increase in years. The first was back in February of 2018, when the fee increased by a massive R30, from R42 to R72.
When you consider the fact that motorists are now paying double what they were last year, and the fact that we are forced to pay it each and every year, and the fact that the government may have realised they’re onto something here, and the situation begins to look a lot bleaker.
Of course, the actual licencing fee differs in every province, depending on the size of your vehicle. Gauteng motorists can expect to pay anything from R204 to R972 for their licence disc and around R204 for a motorcycle licence.
Western Cape folk will get off a little lighter, depending on what you’re driving, and can expect to pay anything between R288 and R966 to renew their licence, with motorcycle licences expected to cost around R192.
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