The Namibian Traffic Information System (NaTis) has generated N$703.4 million in revenue derived from road user charges during the 2018/19 financial year.
NaTis recorded over 1.3 million transactions for which money was collected and an income of N$704.3 million was generated. This translates to an increase of 9.8% compared to 2017/18.
This information is contained in the Roads Authority (RA) annual report for 2018/19, which was tabled in the National Assembly last week.
The road user charges include vehicle licencing, temporary and special permits and vehicle registration.
During the 2018/19 period, the RA inspected 260 570 commercial vehicles for compliance to road traffic regulations on road safety and vehicle or load dimensions.
Out of the vehicle inspected, 1 973 vehicles were not in compliance and were charged. The report shows that the vehicle compliance rate was reflected at 99.24% during that period compared to 89.9% in the previous financial year.
Further, the report indicated that the RA weighed 532 980 vehicles, exceeding its annual target of 456 388 heavy vehicles by 14.4% (76 592 vehicles).
Out of the vehicles that were weighed, 9.9% (52 745 vehicles) were overloaded.
Of those, 0.7% (3 733 vehicles) were overloaded above five percent tolerance, while 9.1% (48 760 vehicles) were overloaded within the five percent tolerance.
Equally, RA inspected 175 528 commercial vehicles for cross-border transport permits, domestic road carrier permits, cross-border charge permits and mass distance charge permits.
Out of the vehicles inspected, 0.6% (1 025 vehicles) were not in compliance and were charged.
Vehicle compliance remained stable and showed a slight decrease from 99.5% in 2018 to 99.4% in 2019.
The report also stated that Namibia’s driver population increased by 9 641 bringing the total driver population to 298 503 during 2018/19, compared to 288 862 in 2017/18.
On learner licences, RA recorded an increase of 1 585, bringing the total number of learner licences as issued to 47 019 in 2018/19 compared to 45 434 during 2017/18 financial year.
This represents an increase of 3.49% compared to the learner driver licences issued during the 2017/18 financial year. Moreover, Namibia’s registered vehicle population increased by 9 491 (2.46%) to 394 976 in 2018/19 compared to 385 485 in 2017/18.
The report shows that the number of vehicle roadworthy tests decreased by 0.26% to 97 944 during 2018/19 compared to 98 202 in 2017/18.
– anakale@nepc.com.na