Anne Berner (Centre), the Minister of Transport and Communications, has assured that the costs of motorists will decrease as a result of the proposed introduction of road-use charges.
Anne Berner (Centre), the Minister of Transport and Communications, has assured that the costs of motorists will decrease next year as certain auto-related taxes will be replaced with user fees.
“The calculations are almost complete, and we'll reveal the details after mid-January. The costs of motorists will principally decline. The few exceptions may be those driving especially large and high-emitting vehicles,” she says in an interview with Kauppalehti.
Berner reminds that as part of the reform new companies will begin providing services to motorists and heavy vehicle traffic for developing and maintaining the road network. It will also become possible to charge foreign-registered heavy traffic vehicles for road use and jointly fund infrastructure projects with, for example, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Nordic Investment Bank (NIB), she adds.
The Ministry of Transport and Communications is currently looking into how state-owned roads, railways and shipping channels should be organised under the state-owned company that is to be established at the beginning of next year to guarantee the future maintenance and development of the transport infrastructure of Finland.
The company will distribute rights to use of the infrastructure to a number of service providers, which will then define the user fees and their associated services together with the end users.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT Photo: Markku Ulander – Lehtikuva Source: Uusi Suomi
