Baltic States – CIS, Estonia, Legislation, Russia, Transport

"Everyone will have to pay the road toll, Russian carriers included. It's the same for all, there isn't a difference between Estonian, Russian and other hauliers. All will be paying one and the same toll and traffic will not come to a halt because of it – trucks will keep rolling as before, simply transport will become more expensive," head of the association's information and transport permits department Ermo Perolainen told BNS.

"It's more of a problem that the Russian side is not technically ready for implementing the highway toll law. Carriers need on-board devices to be able to pay the toll correctly starting from the border but the Russian side is right now unable to equip all vehicles with them. Furthermore, registration of companies with the tax operator is actually not yet possible today – the whole thing was implemented hastily," he added.

Russia launched on Nov. 15 the road toll payment system Platon upon whose full implementation trucks over 12 tons will be charged the toll for approximately 50,000 kilometers of federal highways. From the time of launch hauliers will be fined for non-payment only on roads of the Moscow region. On other roads fines will begin to be imposed on May 1, 2016 so as to give carriers more time to register the companies and equip the vehicles with the necessary devices.

The road toll will be increased gradually from 1.5293 rubles (EUR approximately 0.022) per kilometer until the end of February 2016 to 3.06 rubles (EUR 0.04) until the end of 2019 and 3.73 rubles (EUR 0.05) thereafter.