Future highway fee in Romania: EUR 3 per 100 km, payments made by SMS, bar-codes or vignettes at gas stations

Romanian authorities are currently considering several possibilities for applying taxes and charges to cars traveling on the highways in Romania, according to Dan Şova, the minister delegate for Infrastructure Projects and Foreign Investments. “There will be an electronic fee, paid by mobile phone, there will be one involving a bar-code to be placed on the windshield, for those who travel more often, there will also be the possibility to buy a vignette from the gas station and stick it in the window, there will be several mechanisms,” Dan Sova said during a TV show aired Sunday (May 12) on PROTV. He also added that the system involving barriers will not be used because it will slow down the traffic and it’s not agreed by the potential investors in the construction of highways. When asked what exactly the bar-code taxation system will imply, Dan Sova explained that it will consist of a type of vignette to be bought and stuck in the window. Cameras on highways “will record the bar-code and will automatically take the money from your account,” said the minister. The Romanian authorities aim to build the Comarnic-Brasov, Craiova-Pitesti highway sections, as well as the Southern ring-road for Bucharest through concession before the 2016 elections. The drivers will have to pay a fee on these roads once they are open to traffic and the value of the tax will be EUR 3 per 100 km. Sova also stated that when it comes to the highways built through concession agreements, the fee will be applied after they are open to traffic, but in the case of highways co-financed with European funds “there is a three or five-year period in which we cannot collect taxes on them.” According to Dan Sova, 142 km of highway will be completed this year in Romania, the first inauguration being scheduled for this May, on the Deva-Orastie section. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com