As of the beginning of April, almost all administrative and court fees have increased, some even by half. We will pay more for new documents, various application documents, entries in the Commercial Register, as well as at the Land Registry and the courts.
As to the fees for new documents - the price has risen from €33 to €50 for a passport, and for an identity card from four and a half euros to seven. Of course, there are some exceptions from payments. According to Interior Ministry spokesman Matej Neumann, this has caused a huge demand, especially for passports.
The price increase also applies to vehicle registration certificates and licence plates - the standard plate will now cost 25 euros, the optional one 250 euros. More expensive will also be the cadastre or registry office fees - for example, a change of name or surname will cost 140 euros instead of 100 euros. The Finance Ministry explains that this is part of the consolidation package, as one of the recovery measures for the state treasury. Spokesman Pavol Kirinovic:
“The adjustment of the level of fees is one of the consolidation measures aimed in particular at reducing the cost of individual acts for public authorities, as most of the fees charged have not been changed for more than 20 years.“
The state will thus gain €50 million a year. According to Martin Šuster, a member of the Council for Budget Responsibility, this is a relatively small amount.
"To plug the hole in the budget, we should gradually improve revenues or cut spending by €8 billion."
“Consolidating, however, does not only mean collecting more money from people, but also saving,” explains for RTVS Martin Hudcovský from the Institute of Economics of the Slovak Academy of Sciences.
The Ministry of Finance adds that the valorisation of fees does not apply to percentage-based fee rates or those whose amount has already been changed in previous years.
The fee for processing a driving licence, which is now €6.50, will increase to €10.
Those planning a wedding or needing to transport a deceased person from abroad to Slovakia will also have to dig deeper into their pockets. It will also be more expensive at the land registry - the fee for a petition for registration will rise from 33 euros to 50 euros. The price of the vehicle registration certificate has also risen from six euros to 10 euros.
Source: RTVS, Katarína Borovská
