Electronic road toll significantly unprofitable for Slovakia

Electronic road toll significantly unprofitable for Slovakia

The Slovak republic receives approximately 45% from electronic road and motorway toll, collected in the country by private SkyToll company, indicate the findings of Slovak Supreme Audit Office (NKÚ). During the nine years of operation of the toll, SkyToll has collected almost €1.58 billion, nevertheless only a little over €710 million has gone into the state budget.

The Denník E daily wrote that the original aim of the electronic toll was to collect more money from transporters, which would be then used for the construction of motorways. Nevertheless, the high costs of the operation of the system indicate that state could have collected the toll via stickers and avoid burdening the industry with a high-priced toll.

According to the NKÚ, the low effectivity of the collection is only half of the problem. The project conducted by former transport minister Ľubomír Vážny of the largest governing Smer-SD party and former National Motorway company head Igor Choma was declared to be a public-private-partnership. After 14 years of operation, the system priced at €262 million should have ended up in the hands of the state. Nevertheless, the agreement does not include the transfer of the system to the state. The NKÚ's chair Karol Mitrík informed the government, after 2022, the electronic toll system itself will belong to the private company.

Thus, as the Denník E daily writes, the state paid the overpriced sum of €800 million for the system. In spite of that, Slovakia will have to pay for the system a second time if it wants to obtain it.

As of Monday noon, neither Ľubomír Vážny nor the government have commented on the case.

Mojmir Prochazka, Photo: TASR

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