Botswana – Cross border transporters will fork out up to US$100 to use the Kazungula bridge soon after it’s commissioned.
Botswana Unified Revenue Service (BURS) announced on Thursday the Kazungula bridge toll fees which will come into effect from 11 May 2021 soon after the commissioning of the One Stop Border Post (0SBP).
The freight-related fee structure for cross-border hauliers to use the multimodal crossing between Botswana and Zambia is detailed in the table below:
| Rigid truck 10 ton and above | US$65 |
| Rigid truck 10 ton and above with trailer | US$85 |
| Semi-truck (horse only) | US$50 |
| Horse with semi-trailer | US$85 |
| Horse with a semi-trailer and dangler | US$100 |
| Horse with two interlink trailers | US$100 |
Coming little over a weekend before the Zambezi River linkage is finally commissioned, the toll tariffs are certain to affect overborder transport costs.
“We knew it was going to be stiff,” Mike Fitzmaurice, chief executive of the Federation of East and Southern African Road Transport Associations (Fesarta) was quoted saying in the Freight News.
“There has to be a recovery period for governments to recoup construction costs and it could take up to five years or more. The concession period for such a structure is usually 20 years.”
He remarked that the cost of using the bridge should be seen in relation to what it costs per day to park a truck at the Kazungula transit – $100.
“That’s what it costs to be a transporter in our region,” he quipped.
“Governments charge these fees to recover their costs and transporters have to pick up the tab.”
