site.btaPlanned Revision of Toll Rates Expected to Lower Revenues by BGN 40 Mln Initial Estimate

A planned revision of toll rates with discounts offered for distance travelled, is expected to lower toll revenues by some BGN 40 million compared to what they would have been with the rates effective since July 1, Regional Development and Public Works Minister Andrei Tsekov said here Thursday. He was speaking to reporters who attended the first inspection of the road surface quality on a section of Hemus Motorway at Yablanitsa.

The Minister said that the proposed rates were arrived at after a working group that included road hauliers' organizations. The proposal has been put out for public consultation and the European Commission has been asked for approval. 

He said Bulgaria has had a toll system for three years now. "Every year, the budget includes forecasts based on real traffic analyses, which show that toll revenues should be around BGN 460-480 million. What is actually collected is less than half," said the Minister.

"Why that happens, is the main question. When we made a serious analysis and found out that the toll system, for which the State has paid BGN 180 million and which - both the software and hardware - should owned by the Bulgarian State, is not in practice because the source code is missing," Tsekov said.

The matter has been referred to the State Agency for National Security, added the Minister. He also said: "The source codes were handed over [by the contractor] in 2018 and 2019 but are now missing in the Road Infrastructure Agency. This does not allow the Agency to actually monitor and control the system so that it can collect all due tolls. There are signed protocols that the source codes were handed over [to the Road Infrastructure Agency] and received by a then employee but the Agency does not currently have them. The Agency last received source codes in 2019 when Georgi Terziyski headed it," the regional minister said.