GP's plan for e-tolls debt

We want to raise money to finance the economy, not to finance debt’ Maile.

- RoyCokayne

The Gauteng provincial government plans to use a new revenue enhancement strategy to pay the bulk of the R17 billion it owes the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral) for its Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project (GFIP) debt and interest following the scrapping of the GFIP e-toll system.

Gauteng MEC for finance and economic development Lebogang Maile told Moneyweb last week the provincial government will pay its 30% portion of Sanral's GFIP debt and interest obligations, which amounts to R12.9 billion, but there has been a "minor shift" in that it will not raise money to pay this.

"We will raise money to invest in infrastructure because we want to see long term benefits.

We want to raise money to finance the economy, not to finance debt," he stressed on the sidelines of the tabling of the 2024-25 Budget Vote for the Gauteng Provincial Treasury.