The fund collected in the various weigh bridges will now be managed separately under the National Roads Toll Fund with the private sector set to be players in its collection.
KRB collects close to Sh500,000 every year from transit tolls and distributes it together with the Road Maintenance Levy to the road agencies and the county governments to maintain roads.
The agency was set to boost collection had the expanded toll plan been placed under it as the country plans to levy toll on motorist using certain roads starting the next financial year.
Kenya Roads Board (KRB) is set to lose its control of toll collections even as the country prepares to open its pay-for-use roads next month. This will see it cede a portion of the road funds that it has been managing.
Under the recommendation on Finance Bill 2020 tabled by the National Assembly Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning, the fund collected in the various weigh bridges will now be managed separately under the National Roads Toll Fund with the private sector set to be players in its collection.
KRB collects close to Sh500,000 every year from transit tolls and distributes it together with the Road Maintenance Levy to the road agencies and the county governments to maintain roads.
Under the Finance Bill 2020, the deals signed between private sector players and the government to collect tolls will also not require parliamentary approval in what may set up road users for expensive tolls not scrutinised by the public watchdogs.
“The proposal seeks to amend the definition of toll collector to mean that s/he can be either private or public. This implies that agreements can be signed with public or private persons for the purpose of collecting the toll charges. There will be a public fund to be known as the national Roads Toll Fund that shall be established in accordance with Section 24 of the Public Finance Act 2012,” the MPs wrote in the Bill tabled before parliament last week.
KRB manages close to Sh70 billion largely from the Sh18 per litre levied on motor fuel, which accounts to over 80 percent of the funds.
The agency was set to boost collection had the expanded toll plan been placed under it as the country plans to levy toll on motorist using certain roads starting the next financial year.
Kenya has been struggling to source funds for maintaining its expanded network of roads that is said to have hit 161,451.3 kilometres by 2017, according to the KRB road inventory. A survey conducted on the conditions of the roads between 2009 and 2017 is shown found that 57 percent of the road network in Kenya was in good or fair condition leaving close to half in bad shape.
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