Romania's road tax to triple to EUR 12 for cars with capacity between 3.5 tonnes and 7.5 tonnes

The road tax (Rovineta) for freight cars with a total authorized weight of between 3.5 tonnes and less than or equal to 7.5 tonnes could increase to EUR 12 a day, from EUR 4, as it currently stands, according to a draft Emergency Ordinance by the Dancila government, published on the Ministry of Transport’s website.

The normative act stipulates that the monthly tariff should not exceed 10 percent of the annual tariff, the weekly tariff should not exceed 5 percent of the annual tariff and the daily tariff should not exceed 2 percent of the annual tariff.

According to the annexes included in the draft Ordinance, the plan for freight transport vehicles with MTMA of more than 3.5 tonnes and less than or equal to 7.5 tonnes will cost as follows: EUR 12 / day (from EUR 4 / day), EUR 30 / week (from EUR 16), EUR 60 / month (from EUR 32 / month), EUR 171 / 3 months (from EUR 92) and EUR 600 / year (from 320 euro / year).

For freight vehicles with a MTMA between 7.5 and 12 tonnes, the tariffs applied would be the following: EUR 12 / day (from EUR 7 / day), EUR 33 / week (from EUR 28), EUR 66 / month (from EUR 56), EUR 188 / 3 months (from EUR 160) and EUR 660 / year(from EUR 560).

On the other hand, the charges levied for passenger cars and freight vehicles with MTMA of less than or equal to 3.5 tonnes remain unchanged. Thus, in the case of passenger cars, they are between EUR 3 (one week) and EUR 28 / year, and for freight vehicles with MTMA of less than or equal to 3.5 tons, between EUR 6 / week and EUR 96 per year. At the same time, the three-month tariff for cars is EUR 13, and freight vehicles with MTMA less than or equal to 3.5 tonnes, EUR 36.

As for the fines applied to those who do not pay for the Rovinieta, the draft of the Ordinance shows that their value was calculated as twice the annual fee for the minimum fine and four times the annual fine for the maximum fine. Thus, in the case of cars the minimum fine is RON 250, while the maximum value reaches RON 500. At the same time, for goods vehicles with MTMA of less than or equal to 3,5 tons, the sanction is between RON 900 and 1,800, for freight transport vehicles with MTMA of more than 3.5 tons and less than or equal to 7.5 tons, between RON 5,500 and RON 11,000, for freight transport vehicles with MTMA greater than 7.5 tons and less than 12 tons – between RON 6,000 and RON 12,000, while the highest values of the fines are provided on freight vehicles with MTMA greater than or equal to 12 tonnes, with at least 4 axes (inclusive) – between RON 11,000 and RON 22,000.

At the beginning of this year, the representatives of the Romanian Union of Romanian Road Traffic Unions (UNTRR) drew the attention, in a press release, that the road tax could be 200 percent more expensive for the 30,000 freight cars authorized for 3.5 and 12 tons.

“The Romanian National Road Transport Union (UNTRR) points out that the draft Government Ordinance amending Annex 1 to Government Ordinance No. 15/2002 on the application of the use tariff and the crossing tariff on the national road network in Romania most of the approximately 30,000 freight cars with a maximum authorized mass of between 3.5 and 12 tonnes will have to pay flatbed rates for a day of EUR 12 euros, up 33 percent from EUR 9 for vehicles over 12 tons, with 71.42 percent from EUR 7 for vehicles between 7.5-12 tons and upward by 200 percent from EUR 4 to EUR 12 for vehicles between 3.5-7.5 tons,” said UNTRR officials.

At the time, at the European Commission level, the modification of Directive 1999/62/EC by the Eurovignette Directive is being discussed, which aims to implement the concept of payment of taxes per kilometer and not over time, as is currently the case in Romania.

The EC considers that the proposed measure in the draft directive contributes to the consistent application of the ‘polluter pays’ and ‘user pays’ principles to generate revenue and to provide funding for future investment in transport.

According to the Romanian hauliers, the trend of kilometric tolling of commercial freight cars has expanded with the expansion of the motorway and express roads network, from countries with tradition in highway toll taxation such as: France, Italy, Spain, Germany, to countries such as Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary. Some of these countries charge cars based on the distance traveled (Italy, France) or in time – by stickers of different validity (Austria, Romania, Hungary).

Germany intended to introduce a toll tax of EUR 130 a year for cars on 1 July 2018, but for the users of those registered in Germany, the state will be able to deduct this amount from the annual tax. This has led Austria to open a lawsuit against Germany to the European Court of Justice for canceling this discrimination, as car users with registration numbers other than Germany have no facility.

In Romania, charging for the use of over 17,000 km of national roads (motorways – 748 km, European roads, three lanes, four lane roads, six lanes), the same 40-tonne vehicle, with more than 5 axes, pays between EUR 11 / day and EUR 1,210 / year, regardless of the number of kilometers traveled or the level of polluting emissions.

The county roads amount to almost 35,400 km, and the communal ones over 33,100 km, both categories have different administrators and may have their own charges for using their own infrastructure as well as their own carriers, usually lower than the main network, as well as their own tariffs for overtaking these values.

Currently, a car pays in Romania EUR 28 / year, in Austria EUR 87.3 / year (Austria has a network of highways of 1,720 km), in Hungary EUR 140 / year (Hungary has a network of highways of 1,500 km) , in Bulgaria EUR 50 / year (Bulgaria has a network of 800 km of motorways), and in Germany (the motorway network has 13,000 km), if applied from 2019, the sum of EUR 130 / year.

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