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Khalaf Al Habtoor has called for Dubai’s controversial ‘Salik’ road toll system to be “made free” and the number of speed cameras to be cut, arguing they are discouraging companies and investors from relocating to the region.
In an exclusive interview with Arabian Business, the founder of the Al Habtoor Group and one of the UAE’s most respected business leaders, said: “If they insist on Salik either they have to reduce it or to make it free.”
Asked whether he would like to see it scrapped altogether, he said: “Yes.”
Al Habtoor also claimed the number of speed cameras in the emirate is now “unacceptable.”
The tycoon said it is time to promote the UAE as a tax haven, and both speed cameras and Salik amount to hidden charges that are affecting thousands of people.
Dubai’s road toll system, Salik, was introduced in July 2007, with motorists charged AED100 ($27) to register and AED4 ($1.08) a time for crossing up to four different gates. The maximum daily charge is capped at AED24 ($6.48). According to the emirate’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA), $451m has been collected since its launch.
But Al Habtoor argued: “If there is a big company like an international bank, they have thousands of employees and these thousands of employees have cars. The banks, all the companies, will pay for the Salik, they will pay for everything, as this is part of their overheads.
He continued: “It discourages people; I don’t think it is right. On every corner they are [charging] Salik, on every corner there are cameras, it’s too much.
“For the government this is nothing, this is peanuts from the traffic cameras and from the Salik, peanuts compared to government revenue. For the government revenue there is a lot of resources. If it is revenue from the cameras… it is wrong; it cannot be.”
Al Habtoor also said that the UAE government needs to rethink the number of cameras now in operation. It is believed that up to 1,000 individual speed cameras are in operation in Dubai with fines of up to $544 for breaking speed limits.
“I’m not against traffic control but you have to put it in like any [other] country in the world. The number of cameras and the fines [should be reduced]. It is unacceptable [when you compare it] to anywhere [else] in the world,” he said.
“Even in the desert there are cameras; there are no houses, but there a lot of cameras, not only cameras which are near roads but also hidden under the bushes, and the [police] cars chase you.”
“At least minimise them to make them normal and to make the speed high. Driving from Sheikh Zayed Road to Abu Dhabi you cannot drive, there are cameras in every corner. You drive 80km per hour, you reach when? Tomorrow?”
Speaking to Arabian Business in June, Dubai’s police chief dismissed suggestions that fines issued for traffic violations are a moneymaking device.
“If saving lives is interpreted as a profit-making scheme then that is a strange opinion; in my opinion the value of human life is priceless and you cannot put a value on it,” said Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan Tamim.
“The money we get from fines constitutes less than 10 percent of our expenditure; we are a non-profit-oriented government service department.”
He added that the police had already begun to implement measures designed to reduce to zero the number of fatalities on Dubai’s roads by the year 2020.
“In 2008 we managed to decrease the number of accidents, saving 69 lives,” he said. “The following year we managed to save another 38 lives, because of speed cameras that are enforcing reduced speeds. We attribute saving those lives to speed cameras and fines.”
The RTA did not respond to enquiries from Arabian Business.
. Our drivers are told "You will be driving a very nice car and will get a very good salary but all fines are your respsonbility"...After all, their "job one" and only job is to drive safely and within the speed limit (If it was my job I would drive the darn thing..)
