Economy

Transport Minister Ersek Not Happy with Bill to Scrap Motorway Vignettes

Bratislava, February 13 (TASR) – Minister of Transport and Construction Arpad Ersek (Most-Hid) disapproves of the proposal to scrap motorway vignettes and, on the contrary, would like to hike them up, seeing as they have remained at the same rate for years, TASR learnt on Thursday.

Ersek pointed out that abolishing the vignettes would cause a tangible loss in finances for motorway maintenance and construction.

“I would like them to go up because there hasn’t been any motorway vignettes hike in Slovakia for 11 years,” claimed Ersek. He pointed out that some highways are co-financed also from the state budget, so Finance Minister Ladislav Kamenicky (Smer-SD) will need to offset the loss by taking resources away from other ministries.

On Wednesday (February 12), the Government passed the motion to scrap motorway vignettes, which is now to be discussed by Parliament at a special session in a fast-tracked procedure. Parliamentary Chair Andrej Danko (SNS), who sponsors the bill, made it clear that having it on the agenda was one of the conditions raised by SNS in order to convene the special session.

According to preliminary estimates drafted by the Finance Ministry, the measure will cost €70 million.

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