site.btaAfter Carriers' Meeting with PM, Toll System to Start with Lower Rates

ESD 15:09:31 10-01-2020
DD1506ES.107
107 - ECONOMY - ROAD CARRIERS - PM - MEETING amplified 2

After Carriers' Meeting with PM, Road Toll
System to Start with
Lower-than-Planned Toll Rates


Sofia, January 10 (BTA) - Prime Minister Boyko Borissov Friday
morning met with road carriers of passengers and cargo protesting at the impending launch of a road toll system. The result of the talks is that the toll system will start as planned in March but with lower-than-planned toll rates.

The government plans to deploy the road toll system from March and it will first become applicable for buses and trucks. Carriers blasted these plans and said the toll rates are not adequate to the bad conditions on Bulgarian roads. They also said it would drive through the roof their costs and push up the price of services and commodities. They threatened a national-wide protest on January 13 when they were planning to stop deliveries to supermarkets.

It was on this backdrop that the meeting with the Prime Minister took place.

Participating in the meeting were officials of seven large trade union and employer organizations of bus carriers, road hauliers and taxi companies in Bulgaria. Borissov went into the meeting accompanied by Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov, Regional Development Minister Petya Avramova and an official of the Road Infrastructure Agency.

The representatives of the carriers promised the Prime Minister not to obstruct the launch of the toll system from March 1, said after the meeting Yordan Arabadjiev of the Union of International Carriers.

Tolls will be payable for motorways and first-class roads, and second-class roads will be dropped from the toll system.

The toll rates will be those that road carriers wanted and not those that the government has planned, said the Regional Development Minister. The rates will be published for public consultation on Monday, January 13. It will take a month before the toll rates are adopted by the government.

In exchange, the carriers promised not to protest on January 13 and to allow the government at least three months before they consider possible protests again.

Regional Development Minister Avramova said that the sectoral organizations will make sure all vehicles over 3.5 tonnes, as well as small and large buses, be fitted with the necessary equipment and prepared for the rollout of the toll system on March 1.

A new meeting between the government and carriers will be held in June to discuss the toll revenues and if the toll rates need to be adjusted.

Avramova said that at this stage differences between the government and carriers remain on the revenue that can be collected from tolls: carriers believe that the target revenue of 450 million leva for 2020 can be achieved even with lower rates.

That will be discussed in June. If after three months of operation of the toll system the revenues meet the targets, the rates will remain unchanged, said Arabadjiev of the international carriers' union.

In his words, the Prime Minister heeded the arguments of the transport sector as far as the scope and the rates of the toll system go.

It transpired from Minister Avramova's words that the rates will vary by road class and vehicle emission category but the exact figures will be made public on January 13.

According to Magdalena Miltenova of the Confederation of Bus Carriers, the two sides also agreed that unlawful transport services will be criminalized and the Prime Minister assured carriers that this would be done the soonest possible.

The government and bus operators also agreed to start working next week on an ordinance regulating the subsidizing of loss-making intercity bus services.

In recent weeks, many intercity services were suspended by operators due to insufficient or unpaid government subsidies.

The two sides will also consider ways of including bus services in EU-funded programmes. RY/LN/