The decision came Saturday night: this is how road stickers get more expensive

With an amendment to the law adopted in the summer, Hungary introduced a system of increasing tolls after inflation on national highways. However, the exact extent of the increase has not been known so far, but the Hungarian Gazette published on Saturday night already contains the ministerial decree, which will reveal the extent of the price increase for next year.

ITM’s Sunday morning announcement outlined the key changes (for example, late buyers of the decal can avoid paying the surcharge in the future by redeeming the annual decal), but has not yet outlined the new fees. At the same time, the Ministry was informed that the main benefit of the solution, which is updated annually without special intervention, is that the change in tolls becomes predictable for road users and its extension can be planned. The price of annual national stickers has not changed since 2012, and the introduction of county stickers has not changed since 2015, while more and more motorways and expressways serve those who travel in Hungary.

The part of the regulation on price increases says the following

“The price base established in Annex 2 will be adjusted to the same extent as the increase in the consumer price index published by the Central Statistical Office compared to August of the second year prior to the current year, with a precision of rounding of 10 guilders on the first day of the current year. NÚSZ Zrt. Will publish the established price on its website. At least 30 days must elapse between publication and entry into force. ” The decree will enter into force on the third day after its publication, that is, on Tuesday.

The tolls currently in force are established in the Annex, and With the annual inflation of the CSO in August (it was 3.9%), the rates that will take effect on January 1, 2021 can be calculated. This is summarized in a single table:

Given that the inflation-driven toll increase was made possible by an amendment to the law in July, it is highly likely that the 2021 budget presented in June this year has not yet taken into account the additional revenue from the toll increase. It is not just the expansion of the road network and the actual monitoring of infrastructure maintenance costs that can justify an increase in rates. If we look at it from the budget side, we can say that the billions arrive at the Treasury at the best time, although the increase seems almost small compared to the main lines of the budget. In the original budget voted for the summer, the government planned the amount of toll revenue proportional to time to be HUF 71 billion. If we do not anticipate a decrease in billing as a result of the rate increase, the rate increase will bring HUF 2.8 billion in additional revenue to the state kitchen.

For help, we include the National Toll Service Provider category explanatory table so that all drivers / owners know where their vehicle belongs.