Call to set up a road fund

IT is being recommended that a road fund be established in Barbados to pay for the building and maintenance of the country’s road network.

The recommendation was made by General Manager at C.O. Williams, Neil Weekes, as he delivered remarks at a Town Hall meeting, hosted by the Barbados Association of Professional Engineers (BAPE) at the Combermere School on Wednesday.

Weekes said the fund is needed because the Road Tax collection system which is currently being used in Barbados appears not to be as effective as it was designed to be.

“How the road fund would work is, rather than having a licence and a road tax, you go to the pump and buy 40 litres of petrol, there will be a levy of 20 cents on that. The government collects 20 cents for every litre pumped.

“The nice thing about it is that the government knows exactly how much petrol it sells every month because they own the BNTCL [Barbados National Terminal Company Limited] and they know that they bring in a million gallons, so they know what revenue they should generate. SOL, Rubis and ESSO repatriate the levy to the road fund, and there is a revenue stream that is there,” Weekes explained.

Weekes added that a road fund would bring a balance to the system, and will also be beneficial not only for government but also for road users.

“If you use the road more than me, you pay more than me because you use more fuel. Not like now where an old lady drives a thousand kilometres per year, pays the same amount of money as somebody that does 100 000 kilometres per year because there is a fixed amount based on your car and road tax,” he said.

He indicated that statistics show that a significant per cent of motorists neglect their duty to pay road tax, while others attempt to trick the system.

“The government doesn’t collect the money. Some of those same people that write blogs on Facebook and complain about potholes don’t pay the road tax. It is a fact, the numbers are there.

“With the fund they can’t get away from it, because when you pump the diesel at the pump, you got to pay. They take the money and give it to the government, the government has the road fund and they do the work. You can’t get away from it. Barbados is too small to import your own fuel, so if you want to use your car you got to pay for it,” Weekes stressed.
(AH)