Plan to Impose Road Tax on Trucks Has Improved

Back then, the Chamber agreed to support the proposal only provided that the entire tax revenue received would be used for management of state roads and local roads. The Ministry has informed the Chamber that this condition will be introduced into the draft act. However, so far, the Chamber’s proposal to decrease the fee rates has not been taken into account.

The Chamber is happy that the Ministry has considered their proposal to add to the draft a condition that the entire revenue received from the road use fee would be directed to road management. However, the Chamber is of the opinion that this should be phrased very clearly in the draft act in order to prevent the possibilities to use the revenue for railroad management or in the benefit of ports or airports. Due to the fact that the road use fee must be paid for using the roads, it would be reasonable to use the fees for the intended purposes and only for the management of road transport infrastructure.

The Chamber considers it very important that when the road use fee is established, the road management financing would increase. This means that the decision must result in additional money for road management. The state should not decrease funds from other sources used for road management by the funds received from the road use fee.

It is also positive that the Ministry is planning to add to the draft act the Chamber’s proposal to introduce a weekly and monthly road use fee rate in addition to the daily and annual fee rate.

Unfortunately, the Ministry has so far failed to consider the Chamber’s proposal to establish service fee rates that are lower than the planned. In the Chamber’s opinion, the road use fee will increase business’ costs on transport, which will cause decreased competitiveness of Estonian entrepreneurs. Therefore the Chamber thinks it is reasonable to decrease the annual and quarterly fee rate, because these have the greatest impact on businesses operating in Estonia.