Finance ministry: Doubling the fine unit would not yield enough revenue

The plan to double Estonia's fine unit, based on which fine amounts are calculated, would miss its revenue target many times over, feedback from the Ministry of Finance suggests.
The Ministry of Justice has sent out for a round of feedback amendments to the Penal Code which include doubling the fine unit from the current four euros to eight.
The doubling of the recent fine unit is also prescribed in Estonia's state budget strategy (RES).
However, Minister of Climate Kristen Michal (Reform), acting in the capacity of the finance minister, said in the Finance Ministry's feedback that doubling the fine unit would yield nowhere near the €15.8 million revenue estimate proposed in the RES.
"The explanatory memorandum of the bill puts the growth of revenue forecast at 10-30 percent or €1.1-3.3 million for fines collected by the Police and Border Guard Board (PPA). This means that the projected effect of the amendment falls well short of what the fiscal strategy estimates," Michal wrote.
ERR was told from the Justice Ministry that it is too soon to tell whether and how the draft law will be complemented.
"The Ministry of Justice will discuss all proposals and comments when the deadline comes. That is why it is too soon to say to what extent and how the bill will be complemented," said Laidi Suva, head of the ministry's analysis department.
In addition to hiking the fine unit, the amendments also propose heftier speeding camera fines. While exceeding the speed limit by one kilometer per hour currently fetches a fine of five euros, the bill would raise that to seven euros. The maximum speed trap fine amount would be hiked by 1.4 times from €320 to €400.
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Editor: Marko Tooming, Marcus Turovski