Bulgaria Road Tax Vignette to Cost More in 2010

The price of "vignettes" (road tax) in Bulgaria is set to increase next year, announced Rosen Plevneliev, Minister of Regional Development.

The price of vignettes has not changed for the past two years. The most popular are annual vignettes, which cost BGN 67. In 2008, the revenues collected totaled BGN 217 M. In January this year BGN 103 M were collected, according to the Road Agency.

In October 2009, the recently sacked director of the Road Agency, Yanko Yankov, had announced that the price of stickers would not be increased in 2010.

The National Road Infrastructure Agency stated that there is still no decision on how much new stickers will cost, nor whether this hike will apply to all categories of vignette.

Three ministries – those of Regional Development, Transport and Finance – are meeting Monday night to discuss the matter.

Plevneliev told the Bulgarian National Television there were several variants to be discussed. The final option will be announced Wednesday, when the budget is to be put before the Council of Ministers

The price increase should be applied only to one-year vignettes, in the opinion of the Minister of Regional Development.

The Ministry of Transport prefers not to offer an opinion, because they have not yet received the analysis of the Road Agency, said Minister Alexander Tsvetkov.

The Ministry of Finance commented that they are still analysing whether all types of vignettes are to go up and by how much, or whether the rise should be limited to certain categories only.

Currently, a tender is open for the selection of vignette distributors; the project is worth BGN 40 M, over a period of 4 years, and the deadline for presentation of offers is November 2.

At the moment, the stickers are being distributed only by DZI Trans and Bulgarian Posts. The intention of the tender is to provide for more distributors of the vignettes, said Minister Plevneliev.