Roads Fund Administration misses annual revenue collection target

The Roads Fund Administration (RFA) has missed its 9 billion kwacha annual revenue collection target.

This comes as RFA has only collected over 4.2 billion kwacha in total in the two toll facilities at Chingeni and Kalinyeke in 2022.

The two tollgates were commissioned in November 2021 and January 2022, respectively.

As at the end of September 2022, RFA had collected a total of K3.2 billion from the two tollgates.

RFA spokespersons Masauko Mngwaluko has attributed the under collection to impact of the fuel scarcity and revision of gate fees and regulations.

“As a country we faced some fuel challenges for certain periods because we rely on traffic, there was a reduced flow of traffic because the cars were not moving as they did before.

We also had a challenge whereby initially in our plan, we had staged our tariffs for an example in term of small vehicles the rate was around 1700 kwacha but due to the public outcry, that we had started at a higher price, the tariffs were reduced significantly for smaller vehicles from 1700 to 1000 kwacha, ” Mngwaluko explained.

Meanwhile RFA reveals that more tollgates would be established to boost revenue collection.

“We are proceeding to opening up more tollgates and this is what is in our strategic plan. We are proceeding to identify more sites and we have already identified four sites and we will be constructing new toll gates on those sites” he adds,” Mngwaluko added.

The tollgates have been touted as a game changer to the country’s road development, as the funds generated go towards rehabilitation of the roads.