Toll collection grows by 7% in Q1-3

Prague, Oct 9 (CTK) - Toll collected from lorry and bus operators grew by 7 percent year-on-year to Kc6.5bn in January-September, but the collection does not meet original expectations, Karel Feix, head of company Kapsch operating the toll collection system in the Czech Republic, said.

Total toll collection is expected to reach between Kc8.5bn and Kc8.6bn this year, Feix said. It will grow by 5.8 percent at best compared with last year's result.

Toll collection rates have increased by 25 percent on average since January. But the hike in toll did not affect vehicles in the category of engines with the lowest emissions. The number of vehicles with the lowest exhaust emission standard Euro 5 on Czech motorways rose by almost one-third year-on-year, according to data of the State Transport Infrastructure Fund (SFDI)

Besides, road hauliers pushed through mass discounts on toll as a compensation for the one-quarter hike in toll rates. As a result, the Transport Ministry might pay up to Kc350m in discounts back to hauliers, based on the number of covered kilometres.

The worst month in terms of toll collection was September when toll collection grew by only 1 percent year-on-year to around Kc724m.

The increase was small owing to the distribution of holidays and working days in the month, according to David Cermak, head of road and motorway directorate RSD. September 2011 had 21 working days, while September 2012 had two working days fewer.

There are 591,000 active users (holders of on-board units) registered in the electronic toll system.

The duty to pay toll applies also to all vehicles above 3.5 tonnes as of 2010. Last year, a category with a discount toll rate was introduced for buses.

In 2011, toll revenues amounted to a record Kc8.13bn.