State not planning to introduce automatic checks for heavy vehicles tax
To enforce its planned heavy vehicles tax the government will rely on police patrols as well as the European Union's external border checkpoints. Though according to a survey an automated system based on license plate recognition would be possible, the cost of such a system would likely be too high, BNS reported.
A fully automated system to trace and check heavy vehicles on state roads would cost some €56m, a survey by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications showed. But as local roads are also part of the state's jurisdiction in the matter, and heavy vehicles moving on them as well, the eventual cost of such a system would be substantially greater.
Instead, the task would be added to the Police and Border Guard's work to check whether or not the tax has been paid based on the license plates of trucks and the vehicles register. Patrols would check vehicles on the road, and the Border Guard would do the same at Estonia's external EU border checkpoints.
Minister of Economic Affairs and Infrastructure Kadri Simson (Center) noted earlier this month that a survey conducted by the Government Office in 2015 showed that the most appropriate solution for Estonia would be to introduce a time-based road user charge for heavy goods motor vehicles. The advantages of such a charge are its low investment and maintenance costs as well as the fact that a similar road user tax is already being levied in Latvia and Lithuania, which make up the Via Baltica road transport corridor with Estonia.
Alongside the option to pay the tax online, Estonia will also make available to carriers a network of sales points where the road tax can be paid 24/7 using conventional payment methods.
Similarly to Denmark, Sweden and other EU member states, Estonia is planning to levy the tax on vehicles the maximum mass of which equals or exceeds 12 tons.
The tax rates will be the same for all vehicles, regardless of their country of registration, and will depend upon the emissions class of the engine as well as the number of axles. The revenue generated by the road user charge will be utilized in the maintenance of transport infrastructure, Simson said.
Estonia and Finland are currently the only EU member states not to have imposed a road user tax for heavy goods motor vehicles.
Editor: Editor: Dario Cavegn
Source: BNS