Economy 20 November 2023, 1:41pm

Minister confirms price of new one-day motorway sticker in Hungary

Portfolio

Hungary's Minister of Construction and Transport has been heard by Parliament's Economic Committee on Monday, where he has also revealed, among other things, how much the one-day motorway sticker will cost, hvg.hu reported.

Under an EU directive, Hungary needs to introduce one-day motorway stickers by 25 March 2024 at the latest.

The new sticker, which János Lázár said would cost HUF 5,150, will be available from 1 March next year.

"If user charges are applied in respect of passenger cars, the use of the infrastructure shall be made available at least for the following periods: a day, a week or 10 days or both, a month or two months or both, and a year. The two-monthly rate shall not exceed 30% of the annual rate, the monthly rate shall not exceed 19% of the annual rate, the 10-day rate shall not exceed 12% of the annual rate, the weekly rate shall not exceed 11 % of the annual rate and the daily rate shall not exceed 9% of the annual rate," the Eurovignette Directive stipulates.

The government will meet this requirement, missing the cap by HUF 3.

The one-day sticker will not cost much less than the 10-day sticker that will be available for HUF 6,400 in the D1 category.

The one-day sticker is likely to be popular only among transit passengers, and for a Hungarian motorist it is only worth it if he is absolutely sure that he will only use the toll road network for one day in 10 days. For a weekend trip, it is a considerable extra cost to choose two one-day stickers instead of a 10-day sticker.

In 2024, the B2 category, i.e. buses, will no longer be covered by e-vignettes, as they will pay in the HU-GO system next year, like lorries weighing more than 3.5 tonnes.

The government has recently introduced a rule linking the price of e-vignettes to inflation at the end of the previous summer. August inflation came in at 16.4% yr/yr. Last year, however, it decided to override this by introducing differential price increases, with annual national and county sticker prices used by mainly Hungarian motorists rising by 5-5%, but monthly and weekly multi-types increasing by 44-72%.

Compared to 2018 the price changes are staggering at monthly and 10-day stickers mainly in the D1M, D1, and in the trailer (U) categories, but the price of the annual sticker in D2 also went up by almost 90%.