By Brian Kaps
On top of very high and unaffordable fuel prices, with no clear explanations, the government has gone on rampage increasing the tollgates by more than One Hundred Percent.
A very unfair way of collecting revenues indeed, it is probable that the government has unreservedly run out of ideas on how to collect money from citizenry hence inflicting these poor polices on Zambians who have been subjected to tightening of their belts under the pretext of diversification which has been just on paper and never actualized.
I therefore urge the government to find suitable ways of dealing with challenges of this country unlike inflicting so much pain on innocent people who made them to be what they are today. You cannot just work up and start implementing polices which will adversely affect the people and the country at large.
The government has got a very important role to play in this country and one of the functions is the provision of social safety that is designed to adequately cater to the needs of economically disadvantaged members of society that is not subject to political meddling or manipulation. It is also the duty of the government to provide an enabling environment to this country and see it to that the benefits of the country are trickling down even to the underprivileged.
Am saying this is theft because the charges are too much for the poor Zambians and besides, there are no exemptions, you can pay as many times as possible for as long as you are travelling and the first receipt given will not act as a guarantee for you not to pay at the next point.
I will again urge the government to rescind this policy and identify proper ways of collecting revenues such as quickening the process of giving title deeds to people or citizens or make it flexible and accessible to everyone and let the government then collect land rates. I want to believe that, there are so many houses which are not on title because of the process being intricate and these houses are not paying rates. That is just one proper way of the government collecting money from the people. I can provide as many as possible but for now, let me end here.
Clearly, the Author of this article doesn’t seem to understand the concept of toll fees. I urge you to go and do a mini research, even on the internet, maybe that will help you understand the concept better.
Road infrastructure is funded through normal tax system and state/municipal budgetary allocation (tax collected as Road Tax and Fuel Levy). However, when an additional routing which is more convenient/quicker is constructed (using public or private fund) in addition to the normal route, the alternative route attracts a toll fee for receiving premier service. wherever you find a toll road, there is an alternative route paid for through normal taxation. What we have in zambia is multiple taxation. Subjecting citizens to pay for use of the road whose construction they funded. (going to Kitwe from Kapiri, the Luanshya bypass may be tolled for those gooing to Kitwe otherwise they go all the way through Ndola as an example)
He does. First of all you don’t raise cash for bankrupt treasuries from tolls. The toll cash is meant for maintenance. You dont toll all roads. You leave alternatives. The higher your tolls the higher the cost of living. The higher the cost of labour the less attractive you become for investment
More pain for the common man to come! Zambians must realise that they were told a lot of LIES by Lungu and his PF to try and get votes.
They were hiding away the 10 BILLION DOLLARS they have borrowed and stolen and now have to pay back WITH INTEREST!
I have always wondered how TV levy got accepted as normal. How does being a ZESCO customer immediately make one a consumer of ZNBC TV services? If this is not theft by GRZ then I don’t know what is. Zambians need to rise up against these unorthodox policies. what will it take for tis nonsense to stop? Yaah!
There is also the mysterious Carbon Tax which has never been explained
@ Man from Congo and it is all muzzled up for no one knows how the TV levy through ZESCO is being accounted for! By the way I understand there are no alternative routes i.e. Express Ways between cities in Zambia, so if access to these cities is through a singular road how much does one pay say to get to Kitwe from Livingstone? This means public transport will also have to factor in this extra cost and pass it on to passengers!
Like the Trump effect appeal to the masses on matters that concern them. Then do the exact opposite by blaming something else ie water shortage for loadshedding, Price of Copper and huge burden of subsidies ( when in actual fact the country is broke)!
Toll fees to pay salaries for corrupt judges,District Commissioners and Ministers.No more funds are coming in from the Bilateral partners.ECL and PF have to others means to increase their wealth..
Bilateral partners should just continue their crusade not to give any donor assistance even project money to this Zambian government. The money will just be messed up and pocketed. I congratulate the Caribbean countries i.e Norway, Holland, Sweden for their stance. under this government there is no light and vision at the end of the tunnel. I quote a saying by trump” African leaders are only good at stealing money from their people”. What a shame.
@Joseph Mubiana! We all know the PF government has no money and they now want to squeeze even the little that citizens have to satisfy their greedy. All the moneys collected from toll fees will go to paying emoluments of this bloated PF government, it will never be put to productive use. Don’t support idi0ts unless you are also an idi0t iwe mubiana!
You voted right so just pay. You will be wise next time. Foreign vehicles have been paying all these years minimum i know US$38 in addition to other charges. Most of them leave their vehicles at neighboring country boarders to avoid these punitive charges.
You love vamahala that’s the problem with you people.
Exactly, those of us that have had to use toll bridges are used to this.
Why are there more toll gates on the stretch from Livingstone to Kapiri than from Nakonde to Kapiri? Northern, Muchinga and Luapula provinces boast of the best roads in the country but are exempted from paying for them through toll gates. Either the arithmetic at the Ministry of Whatever is wrong or it is the usual favouratism extended to them because all the officials in high offices in government are from Northern, Muchinga, Luapuls and Eastern provinces.
These days before I read any article I first look at the name of the arthor. If the name is from the bitter community I usually do not read mainly because I already know the content and the ending. This writter however managed to disguise the name by calling himself Brian Kaps so I had to read the nonsence. I will just ask this person one question. How many other roads apart from Zambian roads has he driven on?
Any one who raises a point against Govt is bitter, from a tribe. Really? What a mentality!
THE AUTHOR IS NOT TALKING ABOUT ROADS IN OTHER COUNTRIES.SORRY.
Just pay.You have been sleeping and using the roads for free for so long.No common man drive or own the bus or truck.
People group up cargo from South Africa going to Congo have been passing through our roads without leaving a coin in Zambia….And you are busy crying like a baby at 16hrs…
Rates affecting heavy duty and abnormal load trucks are too generous. These should be adjusted upwards at least by another 50%?
Does the president really know about these increments? Is this what he meant when he told the nation that he was committed to reducing poverty in Zambia?
He will only wake up when the price of Jamesoni goes up and he has to pay instead of getting it free!
You know he uses ZAF planes to go to football matches in Ndola. He has never seen a toll gate!
Most of the counties now have road toll, in DR.Congo its called peage and a foreign registered Toyota landcruiser pays $50. and 20 Tonne truck pays $300. Maintenance of roads is costly and most of the vehicles are over-loaded, road toll is the only way to go.
All these people complaining about these normal adjustments are the same people who will complain when the roads are bad & Government wont be able to refurbish them, how do u expect the process of maintenance for these roads to commence? Government alone can not afford to do so, it is high time these departments started to sustain themselves and not rely on Government to hand them Money…. Go to any developed country and check how much they pay to use their roads and come back and open your mouths….it has been long overdue anyway..ukutemwa ifya free
its indeed complacence by many of you supporting this useless policy, we are not saying we shouldn’t pay but what we are saying is that the charges are to much. Besides some people have already started comparing Zambia with south Africa and what they forget is, these are too different countries and the parameters are different, if they charge 1000 in south Africa don’t expect it to be the same here ,as Zambia is underdevelopment and south Africa is a developed country. what ever we are saying here goes back to leadership. we need a John magufuli here in zambia.
The biggest theft of government funds is at the level of PS to Director through workshops that they don’t even attend or intend to attend, or even know about. The only qualification that they have to this stolen money is to authorise their juniors to organise or attend workshops and seminars. The irony of this theft is that the majority of these so called controlling officers are UPND members and sympathisers, the same paryy which sees theft everywhere exvept among its own people. To UPND thieves are those who steal and yet are not members of the party.
I have no quarrel with the toll fees if the money is used for its intended purpose. But to abuse my money to fund the thieves in civil service pisses me off. So does the abuse of my money to increase salaries of MPs in both PF and UPND. Just watch this space, those thieves in parliament who pretend to sit on opposite sides and pretend to shout at each other and pretend to represent us will very soon be increasing their own already obscene salaries. And Gary Nkombo and Jack Mwwimbu will be the proposers of the motion especially that they have again lost out on ministerial positions.
TERRIBLE, UR ARE SAYING YOU DO NT HAVE A PROBLEM EVEN IF U AR CHARGED K1000 FOR USING THE FOR AS LONG AS THE MONEY IS USED FOR INTENDED PURPOSES? ONE DAY U B COMPELLED TO START PAYING FOR OXYGEN FOR AS LONG AS THE MONEY IS USED FOR INTENDED PURPOSES.
Zambians always complain about anything that requires them to pay something. This seems to be hangover from the KK and UNIP where a lot of services were free. Even at my apartment building where we require that every landlord pays just K50 per month to meet the costs of paying Cleanfast to collect garbage from the premises, it is a battle for some people to pay such a small amount. And you are talking of the so-called middle class types – accountants, ICT experts, economists, engineers, etc, etc! So when I read this nonsense about people complaining about high toll fees, I just yawn!