Tokelo Khausela
THE Road Fund increased revenue collection by about 19 percent in 2023 to a whooping M219 million.
The remarkable revenue hike level was a result of increases in the Road Maintenance Levy, toll gate fees and vehicle registration fees, among other streams.
The CEO of the Road Fund, Nkekeletse Makara, said in the company’s 2022/23 annual report it had collected M219 118 860 from the M183 762 680 collected in 2021/2022, an increase by M35 356 179 or about 19 percent.
“The year 2022-2023 has shown full recovery from effects of covid-19, a worldwide pandemic which had devastated the world mostly between 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 financial years,” Mr Makara said.
“The recovery led to increased revenue collection as the Road Fund continued to work with collecting agencies in order to maximize collection as much as possible.”
Mr Makara said revenue was collected through the department of Traffic and Transport under the ministry of Public Works and Transport, Revenue Services Lesotho (RSL), Lesotho Mounted Police Service (LMPS) through traffic police as well as petroleum companies which remit the Road Maintenance Levy.
He said the Road Fund, while recording achievements, also faced challenges during the year under review.
“Even though the three-year strategic plan came to an end on 31 March 2023, its implementation was affected a lot by the covid 19 pandemic, which hit the country exactly a month before the commencement of its implementation from 1st April 2020. However, its overall performance scored 83 percent.
“Therefore, the Road Fund perceives this as superlative performance, given the interruptions that the pandemic caused within the three-year life of the strategic plan,” he said.
He said their aim was to improve road user experience through better operating facilities. Therefore, the Road Fund had embarked on a project to upgrade and improve Lesotho’s three main boarder gates namely, Caledonspoort, Maputsoe and Maseru Bridge at a cost of M17 million.
Mr Makara noted the introduction of the new Automated Traffic Justice System (ATJS), an electronic information system aimed at improving the workflow between departments that deal with traffic offences.
“The system is also an improvement on the eSpot fine, which was only operated by the police. Upon its implementation, it became eminent that it would be more effective when prosecution and the judiciary are included in the workflow, thereby completing the handling of traffic offences lifecycle.
“Performance of implementing agencies remain a huge concern for the Road Fund. They could not match the budget allocation with expenditure on the projects on the ground. Of the M217 395 375 allocated, only M 72 605 971 had been utilized at the end of the reporting period,” Mr Makara said.
