site.btaCarriers, Employers Demand Road Toll System Be Delayed Until 2020

105 ECONOMY - ELECTRONIC ROAD TOLL SYSTEM - INTERVIEW

Carriers, Employers
Demand Road Toll System
Be Delayed Until 2020


Sofia, April 22 (BTA corr. Lyudmila Spasova) - Ivaylo Konstantinov, Board member of the Bus Carriers Confederation, commented Monday in a BTA interview the introduction of an electronic road toll system, which will drop vignettes for trucks and will introduce a toll fee per mileage. The Bus Carriers Confederation expects that the toll system will lead to an expansion of the grey sector, Konstantinov said.

The road toll system, which caused sharp controversy and reactions among carriers, the business, employers, the authorities and society, will be ready for launch around August 16 and will start being tested from May 15 on mileage fees.

Ivaylo Konstantinov noted that carriers understand that revenues from vignettes and toll fees are the only way to influence the infrastructure, but the idea will be difficult to realize. There should be a distinction between public transport providing a social service, and transport providing only a service. In the first case, carriers cater for 12 entitled citizen groups and they should not receive state assistance other than for transportation in public transport spheres. "This, along with the grey sector, shrank the sector by two-thirds in the past 10 years," Konstantinov noted.

According to him, every additional expense leads to new bankruptcies. Konstantinov recalled that in the past years, there were many such expenses: for additional equipment with safety belts, for video registers, and for the increase of insurances and the minimum salary. "When we add to this the impossibility to correct the price of the offer, as it is fixed for the whole contract period under the Public Procurements Act, the additional expenses for toll fees will definitely lead to new bankruptcies and will deprive many municipalities of transport services," he said.

  IG/TH


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