Electronic vignettes for cars will be 10% cheaper from January 1, 2023

From 1 January 2023, new prices of vignettes and toll taxis will come into force in Bulgaria. The change has been adopted by Decree No 142 of 24 June 2022 amending the Tariff for the fees charged for passing and using the paid road network.

All types of electronic vignettes for road vehicles with a maximum permissible gross weight of 3.5 tonnes or less will become cheaper by nearly 10%.

The annual vignette will cost 87 BGN, the quarterly vignette will cost 48 BGN, the monthly - 27 BGN, the weekly - 13 BGN and the weekend vignette - 9 BGN.

Electronic vignettes purchased in December 2022, even if they have an activation period after 00.00 on 01 January,.2023, are calculated at the prices valid until the end of this year. They are as follows - annual vignette - BGN 97, quarterly - BGN 54, monthly - BGN 30, weekly - BGN 15, weekend vignette - BGN 10. It should therefore be taken into account that if a driver buys an annual vignette at the end of December 2022, it will be sold at the prices in force in 2022.

The revenue from road fees at the end of November 2022 is nearly BGN 511 million. Approximately BGN 268 million of this is from e-vignettes and around BGN 243 million from tolls, according to the Road Infrastructure Agency.

The expected revenues from road charges - e-vignettes and tolls - in 2023 are about BGN 800 million. The forecasts are that nearly BGN 550 million of the revenues will come from tolls, which vehicles weighing over 3.5 tonnes pay for the distance travelled. Around BGN 250 million is expected from e-vignettes.

The National Toll Authority has appealed to users to use the website www.bgtoll.bg or the mobile app to purchase e-vignettes.

E-vignettes can also be purchased through other sales channels of the RIA - at the counter against cash payment or through a self-checkout terminal - with a card. There are counters at the main border crossing points as well as at the 27 regional road offices in the country.

Electronic vignettes are also sold in the Road Infrastructure Agency's partner network, which includes the websites www.vinetki.bg, www.tollpass.bg, www.digitoll.bg, www.epay.bg and others.

When purchasing an e-vignette, users need to carefully review and verify the information entered by them or the relevant officer before finally confirming payment of the toll. It is the responsibility of the owner or user to fill in the correct information about the vehicle number, its category and the period of validity of the vignette. In case of incorrect declaration of data, it shall be deemed that the due vignette fee for the respective vehicle has not been paid.

The characters of the registration number may be written in Cyrillic or Latin, but must correspond to the characters of the registration number itself. Only letters and numbers are entered when the number is written. The characters 0 (zero) and O (letter O) are not interchangeable. A digit of the number must be written as 0 (zero) and a letter as 'O'. If the registration number contains a hyphen, a period or a space, these shall not be entered.

Persons with 50 per cent or more reduced working capacity and families raising children with permanent disabilities up to the age of 18 or up to the completion of secondary education, but not older than 20, are entitled to a free e-ticket. According to the Road Act, the right is for one car with a power of up to 160 hp and an engine capacity of up to 2000 cubic centimetres.

It should be taken into account that the free electronic vignette does not follow the road vehicle in case of transfer of ownership. In such a case, the right holder must notify the Road Infrastructure Agency of the transfer within three working days in order to be issued with a new free electronic vignette.

The application for a free e-Vignette must be submitted by the beneficiary to the Social Assistance Directorate at his/her current address, either in person or by an authorised person, by letter or electronically. The social services process and approve the documents within 7 days of the application.

The Social Assistance Agency sends the processed applications daily to the Road Infrastructure Agency, which issues the e-Vignette within the next working day.

In case of difficulties and need for advice, those wishing to be issued with a free e-Vignette via the Social Assistance Agency can contact the Customer Service Centre of the National Toll Authority on 0700 10 876 or e-mail: info@bgtoll.bg.