Grace period for driving on Bulgarian roads without an ‘e-vignette’ ends on January 15
The grace period for driving on Bulgaria’s motorways and major roads without an electronic road tax “e-vignette” ends on January 15 2019. From January 16, anyone caught driving without one is liable to be fined.
The grace period was granted because of problems in introducing the system, which was meant to have come into effect on January 1.
Bulgarian National Radio reported Regional Development Minister Petya Avramova as saying that e-vignettes were on sale at many places, including 6000 points in the country, the bgtoll.bg website, the vinetki.bg website, and A1 shops, among others.
“There is no reason for anyone to travel on a national road without the toll having been paid,” Avramova said.
The head of the Bulgarian Association of Motorists, Hristo Radkov, told Bulgarian National Radio that e-vignettes still were not on sale everywhere, including border checkpoints and major road arteries.
The system for converting hard-copy vignettes to e-vignettes was open to manipulation, he said.
The former head of the Road Infrastructure Agency, Svetoslav Glosov, rejected Radkov’s claims, saying that there were 4500 points where people could buy e-vignettes either via self-service terminals or in cash, “not to mention mobile apps and websites”.
He described Radkov’s allegation that the system of conversion could be manipulated as “absolute nonsense”.
(Photo: Road Infrastructure Agency)
