Home affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi has amended the tariffs for South African passports and travel documents.
The amended fees, published in the government gazette in October, came into effect this week.
Motsoaledi said the fees were amended in consultation with finance minister Enoch Godongwana.
What are the new fees for passports and travel documents?
The fees payable in respect of applications for passports or travel documents are:
- Adult passport: R600 (previously R400)
- Maxi adult passport: R1,200 for 32 pages (previously R800), R2,400 for 48 pages (maxi, current fee R800)
- Child passport: R600 (previously R400)
- Official passport: R600 (previously no charge)
- Diplomatic passport: R600 (previously no charge)
- Document for travel purposes: R600 (previously R300)
- Crew member certificate: R600 (previously R350)
- Emergency travel certificate R140 (current fee R140)
What informed the change in fees?
Motsoaledi said the changes were informed by the outcome of a benchmarking exercise which found South Africa's tariffs were up to three times lower than many other countries.
This is the first time since 2011 the fees for travel documents have been increased.
“The decision was also informed by the fact that production costs are much higher than what people are paying for our passports. This means the government is heavily subsidising passport holders when such a subsidy is not realised for ordinary ID applicants.
“We believe that the people who are able to travel out of the country are financially better off than ordinary citizens and they don’t need to be subsidised in the manner we have been doing,” said Motsoaledi.
'Three times cheaper than many countries
Speaking to eNCA, Motsoaledi said after reviewing the passport fees and having a service provider benchmark them, the department found South African passports were three times cheaper than many countries.
He said passports were being heavily subsidised while documents like IDs were not.
“When we calculated, we found that we are actually heavily subsidising passport holders and our argument is this: people who get passports are much are better off than ordinary citizens but ordinary citizens, most of whom are poor, are not being subsidised when they get IDs.
“We said no, we can't go this way. The people who want to travel must pay for that travel because travel is not cheap anywhere in the world, that's why we wanted to double them but Treasury only allowed us to increase them by 50%,” said Motsoaledi.
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Here's what you need to know about the amended tariffs for passports and travel documents
Image: 123RF/ Instinia
Home affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi has amended the tariffs for South African passports and travel documents.
The amended fees, published in the government gazette in October, came into effect this week.
Motsoaledi said the fees were amended in consultation with finance minister Enoch Godongwana.
What are the new fees for passports and travel documents?
The fees payable in respect of applications for passports or travel documents are:
What informed the change in fees?
Motsoaledi said the changes were informed by the outcome of a benchmarking exercise which found South Africa's tariffs were up to three times lower than many other countries.
This is the first time since 2011 the fees for travel documents have been increased.
“The decision was also informed by the fact that production costs are much higher than what people are paying for our passports. This means the government is heavily subsidising passport holders when such a subsidy is not realised for ordinary ID applicants.
“We believe that the people who are able to travel out of the country are financially better off than ordinary citizens and they don’t need to be subsidised in the manner we have been doing,” said Motsoaledi.
'Three times cheaper than many countries
Speaking to eNCA, Motsoaledi said after reviewing the passport fees and having a service provider benchmark them, the department found South African passports were three times cheaper than many countries.
He said passports were being heavily subsidised while documents like IDs were not.
“When we calculated, we found that we are actually heavily subsidising passport holders and our argument is this: people who get passports are much are better off than ordinary citizens but ordinary citizens, most of whom are poor, are not being subsidised when they get IDs.
“We said no, we can't go this way. The people who want to travel must pay for that travel because travel is not cheap anywhere in the world, that's why we wanted to double them but Treasury only allowed us to increase them by 50%,” said Motsoaledi.
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