New toll fees for vehicles entering the country in the various entry points have been reviewed and will be effected on October 1.
The ministry of public works and transport recently announced that road user fees had been reviewed in line with Section 4 of the Finance (Amendment) Act 2025 with other fees.
The fees now include local registered cars that would pay E55 for light motor vehicle and a maximum of E100 for heavy motor vehicles and E150 to E450, respectively for foreign registered cars.
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Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg explained that the rationale behind the newly-adjusted toll fees, stating that the revenue would support better roads and infrastructure.
Problems
Speaking during the finance in focus session, he said the country was facing problems with road maintenance.
He said even highways were in desperate need of maintenance. He said the main artery roads and the tarred ones constantly needed patching.
The minister said there was need to find a sustainable solution to it, hence the previous Parliament set up the Road Agency Fund.
“One could put a budget allocation towards it, but find that next year there is pressure, the budget goes away and we are back to square one. You can see that the roads need serious rehabilitation possibly but the bigger problem is our rural roads. We are just not getting to grading our roads properly and fixing these roads.
“The Road Agency Fund is for maintaining roads and we looked at how we could put money into this fund. One of the options was trying to place toll gates in Eswatini, like they have in many countries, where you get to a toll boom and pay to go through,” he said.
Further, he explained that light motor vehicles regardless of private or commercial if foreign registered would pay E150 as they enter the country.
He said trucks with one axle in front as well as one axle at the back between three and a half as well as seven and a half tons would pay E350 upon entry.
He also noted that currently, any privately used vehicles licenced in Eswatini did not pay, but only vehicles used for commercial purposes.
However, all that would change because all cars entering the country would pay whether local or foreign registered.
He said foreign registered vehicles would pay quite a bit more, from E80 for motorbikes.
The minister emphasised that a single axle and a double axle truck at the back would cost E400 and the big interlinks, the ones with multiple axles and often horse and trailer kind of entities would pay E450 as they cross.
“The money will also go into the road agency fund for maintaining roads in the country.
“This money is going to be quite a few hundred million Emalangeni, which will make a considerable fund that will be coming in sustainably every year and it will be used to maintain roads,” further stated the minister.
