From January 1, car drivers will be able to also use a weekend vignette at a price of BGN 10

From January 1, 2019, drivers of motor vehicles up to 3.5 tons will be able to also use a weekend vignette. It will cost BGN 10 and will be valid from 12:00 on Friday to 23:59 on Sunday. The remaining prices of vignette fees remain unchanged. The prices of the vignette fees for heavy vehicles will not change either - they will be valid until August 16, 2019, when the toll system will enter into force and will be transferred to the toll fee.

The introduction of the weekend vignette is regulated by a government decree amending the Tariff for tolls collected by the Road Infrastructure Agency. This opportunity will facilitate drivers who travel on the national road network less often.

The change enables drivers of motor vehicles with foreign registration to pay the fees set in euros in their lev equivalent.

The Tariff for the fees collected by the Road Infrastructure Agency also determines the amount of the compensatory fee, which will be paid by the violators who use the national network without paying the toll. For drivers of vehicles over 12 tons it will be BGN 175, for road vehicles between 3.5 and 12 tons - BGN 125, and for cars up to 3.5 tons - BGN 70. For heavy goods vehicles the compensatory fee will be applied for the so-called transitional period before the introduction of the toll fee for distance traveled on August 16, 2019. From this date it will be updated depending on the adopted tariff for toll fees to be paid for the territory of Bulgaria.

The compensatory fee is an intermediate sanction to the persons who have not paid the due vignette fee, but use the road network and are violators in the sense of the legal provisions for toll collection. This is the fee that is paid in order to avoid administrative sanctions.

From January 1, 2019, the mixed electronic system for charging the different categories of road vehicles based on time and distance will start functioning. Then the electronic vignettes will come into force. Therefore, with amendments to the Regulations for the implementation of the Roads Act, the provisions for issuing paper stickers are repealed.

The vignette fee for the use of the paid national road network will be paid by the owners or users of cars with a total technically permissible maximum mass of up to 3.5 tons, inclusive, and for those over 3.5 tons, there will be a toll. The toll system for trucks will be operational from August 16, 2019. Until then, their drivers are paying a vignette fee.

The administration of the revenues from the received tolls, the preparation of reports and forecasts will be carried out by the Road Infrastructure Agency. It will maintain the systems for generating and selling electronic vignettes and route maps and will organise the distribution and maintenance of on-board devices for toll collection purposes. The Agency will operate and maintain an Electronic toll collection system, incl. technical and software support of the system components.

With the adopted changes the by-law is brought in line with the amendments to the Roads Act, given the introduction of the mixed payment system for crossing the national road network.