The Road Fund Administration (RFA) forecast a meagre N$1 million surplus for the 2019 financial year, according to details contained in its Five Year Business Plan for the period April 2018 to March 2023.
The administration said additional financing is required to bridge the funding constraints within the period of the business plan.
In the 2017 financial year, the fund’s total assets amounted to N$342 million, with total liabilities at N$785 million and an accumulated deficit to the tune of N$442 million.
The report estimates that revenues and expenditures in the 2018 financial year will accumulate a N$253 million deficit.
“The projected deficit at the end of the financial year 2018 has necessitated the RFA budgeting for a surplus of revenue over expenditure in the financial year 2019, amounting to a projected break-even amount of about N$1million,” the report said.
RFA revenue comes from fuel levies on petrol and diesel, license fees, entry fees and cross border charges as well as mass distance charges.
This money is used to fund the operations of the Roads Authority, National Traffic Information System and vehicle and driver testing, Local Authorities and Regional Councils and the National Road Safety Council.
The RFA said it is evident that the funds collected through the road user charging system are substantially inadequate to achieve the object of the RFA Act of a “safe and efficient road sector”.
“The achievement of this aim on a broader national funding level will therefore depend on the government assuming responsibility for funding the difference between the amount of funding as determined for achieving economic efficiency, and the amount that the road user charging system can contribute subject to the road user charges constraints imposed.”
The report said the direct result of constraints on the increases of road user charges is that the Road Fund as from the financial year 2019 will only be able to fund a few projects, which includes the maintenance of the national road network (N$1,1 billion).
The other funding required is for the maintenance of urban streets (N$118 million), the rehabilitation of TR1/3, between Keetmanshoop and Mariental and the rehabilitation of an 87.3km stretch between Tses and Gochas.
Funding will also go towards the operation of the Namibian Traffic Information System (N$38 million), a contribution to traffic law enforcement (N$35 million), a contribution to projects of the National Road Safety Council (N$2 million), the administrative expenses of the RA (N$423 million), the administrative expenses of the RFA (N$112 million) Mass Distance Charges, Automation Project (N$65 million), ICT System Development (N$16 million), contribution of N$20 million towards the completion of the RA Head Office and land acquisition, development and construction of a One Stop NaTIS Centre in Windhoek (N$22 million).
In the 2017 financial year, the RFA Board approved a loan from KfW of Germany valued at N$482 million.