GAUTENG motorists have been granted a reprieve from highway toll fees. A new fee structure announced by the government proposes that tolls for regular users of freeways be capped at R550.

Commuter taxis and buses will be exempt from paying toll fees, while a 20% discount will be introduced for heavy-duty vehicles that travel on the highways outside of peak traffic hours.

The proposed new price structure was announced by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan at a press briefing just before tabling his budget in Parliament.

In terms of the new price regime, the per-kilometre fee for private motorists goes down from 66c to 30c for those who purchase e-tags from the roads agency Sanral.

Frequent users now have their toll fees capped at R550 per month, no matter how often they travel on Gauteng's freeways.

They will also qualify for a 15% discount when their toll-fee account accumulates to R400 in a single month.

Minibus taxis and other public transport operators such as buses will be exempt from paying toll fees.

Motorbikes will now be charged 20c per km per trip; smaller trucks 75c per km; and bigger size trucks a whopping R1.51 per km.

But heavy-duty vehicles will benefit from a 20% discount for using the freeways outside morning and afternoon peak hours.

Tolling will start on April 30. The planned tolling of Gauteng freeways was introduced to help Sanral pay back more than R59-billion that the agency has borrowed to upgrade roads nationally.

Gauteng freeways alone have cost Sanral R20-billion to upgrade. But the user-pays principle adopted by the agency has been met with outrage by drivers, interest groups and trade unions.

Labour federation Cosatu is advocating a civil disobedience campaign and has encouraged affected motorists to drive through the booms erected on highways to enforce tolling but not pay when the bill is posted to them.

The Automobile Association has threatened to take government to court over the planned tolling of freeways.

Unhappiness over the plan prompted the government to put the implementation of the toll fees on hold while it embarked on a frantic search for a solution.

Gordhan described the new price plan as "extremely generous".

"This is the best that government can do. It is a demonstration of the fact that government is not insensitive to concerns raised by the public."

He said the government was now appealing to all concerned parties to seriously consider the new price plan.

"Adversarial ways of trying to resolve from this point onwards won't be useful to anyone concerned," he said.

Gordhan was also quick to point out that the Gauteng toll fee structure would not necessarily be adopted as a funding formula for other roads improvements, such as the expansion of the N2 between KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape.

Deputy Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene said the government would direct some of the R5-billion refund it received from the aborted sale of Airbus aircraft by arms manufacturer Armscor towards Sanral to help it repay its loans.

Transport Minister S'bu Ndebele said his department would table the Transport Law Enforcement and Related Matters Bill this year, which would outline measures to be taken against those who did not comply with payment of toll fees.