Harare City council says the city’s road network has been deteriorating ever since Zimbabwe’s National Road Agency (ZINARA) took over collection of vehicle licence fees and wants the fund to be disbursed to local authorities in proportion to vehicle population.
Vehicle licence fees were in the past collected by local authorities until 2010 when ZINARA took over.
In a position paper on the management of road user fees to Parliament’s portfolio committee on Transport and Infrastructure, Harare is appealing for a change of policy to allow it to collect vehicle license fees or alternatively to ensure that there is equitable distribution of vehicle licensing funds.
“The City of Harare has been exploring administrative channels to ensure cooperation from ZINARA so that the mandate of fixing roads is fulfilled. However, ZINARA has not been forthcoming with an enabling funding mechanism,” the document reads.
“The city’s concern is that the road network has been deteriorating ever since ZINARA took over administration of the Fund.”
In the document, the council notes that ZINARA disbursements to Harare have gone down from $4.5 million in 2010 to $60 000 last year despite the city’s growing vehicle population.
In 2009 the local authority collected vehicle licencing fees amounting to $6.2 million from a vehicle population of 531 700 and it is estimated that the city’s vehicle population has more than doubled since then.-The Source
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