Tolls!

Share experience regarding ownership of property and/or living in Portugal.
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pickwick
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Tolls!

Post by pickwick »

Hi all

Todays news seems to suggest that the much discussed tolls on the A22 will commence on 15th Ocober!!

"According to reports today in the Jornal de Negócios. The roads affected includes the Via do Infante in the Algarve. The users’ committee for the A23, A24 and A25 are clearly not pleased with this imposition and has called for disobedience and protest in the streets.

October 15th seems a favourite bad news day for the Government as last year this date was chosen to start charging tolls on three roads in the north.

Zulmiro Almeida, from the committee of users of the A23 (Torres Novas-Guarda), A24 (Viseu-Keys) and A25 (Aveiro-Vilar Formoso) has again appealed for unity and protest by all Portuguese people, but especially those who will be directly affected by the tolls.

The Government has neither confirmed nor denied the date but radio broadcasts this morning on some Portuguese radio stations covering the Algarve picked up the story and many post offices reported an unusually high number of drivers asking for electronic devices, to no avail as few have stock. Drivers had been expecting a 30 day period of grace from the day on which the Government makes the official announcement by newspaper. The relevant laws have been passed, the delay is in the implementation and the news from Estradas de Portugal last week that there was no way of reading foreign number plates did little to convince pundits that the Government, or the subcontracted agencies involved in the collection of the tolls, had its act together."
Farol
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Re: Tolls!

Post by Farol »

Have you not been following the thread on the General Carvoeiro section of the forum? There is better information there.
pickwick
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Re: Tolls!

Post by pickwick »

Hi Farol

Who are you the "posting police"? How do you know what information is "better"?

No-one seems to have hard facts and my post was aimed at owners with foreign registered cars and that is why I posted it.

Personally I think every foreign vehicle that enters Portugal should have to buy a 6 months tax disc at say €183 at the point of entry. Then if the vehicle exits Portugal before 183 days a pro-rata refund should be made. Part of this deal could be toll free usage of all roads for the 6 month period. It should then not be possible to re-enter Portugal with the same vehicle unless the vehicle was originally in Portugal for less than 6 months in the 12 month period in which case the vehicle should be able to enter paying the balance of the tax for the balance of time and again enjoying toll free driving. This would have the advantage of stopping all the foreign registered vehicles that currently remain in Portugal in breach of the 6 months law staying in the country. Any foreign vehicle found to be flouting the 6 month law should be impounded on the spot and sold. Hire cars could then be exempt from the tolls, genuine tourists would be able to bring their cars into the country for up to 183 days in every year and Portugal would raise more taxes.

Pickwick
sunman
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Re: Tolls!

Post by sunman »

well, thank heavens you're not in charge of anything then :)
EMM
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Re: Tolls!

Post by EMM »

I saw something on the TV today about Irish customs. They can stop any non Irish reg car they suspect of being an " import " and if the owner has not registered it on arrival they can apply on the spot fines or confiscate the vehicle.

I do not know if this is still the case maybe our Irish friends can comment.
innocent tourists or visitors obviously have nothing to worry about.
joeysoap
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Re: Tolls!

Post by joeysoap »

Hi EMM,

That has always been the case but like everything else it was more observed in theory than in reality. there is a big difference in the price of cars between Ireland and UK (incl Northern Ireland) so the temptation is always there. during the height of the celtic tiger folly it was not unusual to see hundreds of LT, LV, PL mixed in with the thousands upon thousands of Norn Ireland cars openly flouting the regulations. plenty of argument and discussion on forums over here ie how many tourists work permanently in another country? etc etc (if the odd one was taken to court they always claimed they were only tourists). No longer see the eastern european regs, certainly not in any number, but still plenty of NI cars, especially round the border counties. I would agree there has been a clampdown in the past few years,
a) to gather revenue
b) because the irish motor group were quite vocal in demanding that the government/revenue enforce the law in order to compete with imports. can't blame them really, as they were playing with one hand tied behind their back. the import duty is called vehicle registration tax or vrt for short.

http://bit.ly/obqBtx
biffa
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Re: Tolls!

Post by biffa »

The law has now been published in the Government Gazette and start up date is rumoured to be either 8 or 15 December.

If you are resident or in case of a corpoarte entity have head office in one of the Algarve council areas you will get 10 free trips per month and a 15% discount of the others after that.
Jaylay
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Re: Tolls!

Post by Jaylay »

Now wait for the fun and games :D
There will definitely be some stories to keep us all amused in the next few months; no cars on the motorway, lorries jammed on the EN 125 ,no collection of tolls from Foreign cars :(
Perhaps this is the best time of the year for the tolls to be introdued as the mishaps/problems may illustrate to the powers that be what it all really means in the day to day reality. Perhaps by summer they will have to rethink.
martin
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Re: Tolls!

Post by martin »

not sure if I read "10 free trips" the news says this

"The law states that residents and local businesses will not be charged for the “first ten passages through electronic toll collection points” each month"

to my way of thinking you will say on ONE journey pass thru 10 collection points..I do not read this as 10 free journeys in a month
martin
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Re: Tolls!

Post by martin »

pointersister
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Re: Tolls!

Post by pointersister »

We are heading back to Cvo in February and have booked a rental car with our usual company. I wrote to them to find out about how we will pay for the tolls. the advice they gave me was that it is all very very complicated and perhaps the best thing to do is to travel on the 125!!! We don't want to go on the 125 :( Has anyone sussed this fiasco out yet? I think we could go on the A22 on the way to Cvo and pay the fee in the post office but the big problem is getting back to the airport. Any help would be greatly appreciated :)
laserblazer
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Re: Tolls!

Post by laserblazer »

You can use the A22 and maybe get a fine, maybe pick up the last user's bill, maybe get away with it. Or you can take the 125, give yourself an extra 30 minutes and you'll be fine.
Bruce Wallis
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Re: Tolls!

Post by Bruce Wallis »

I agree......just allow the extra time, and use the N125. Saves a lot of frustration and hassle.

The bottom line on all this is....you ask 10 different people as to a solution, and you will get 10 different opinions.
Nobody has a "one size fits all" answer
logicbob
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Re: Tolls!

Post by logicbob »

pointersister wrote:We are heading back to Cvo in February and have booked a rental car with our usual company. I wrote to them to find out about how we will pay for the tolls. the advice they gave me was that it is all very very complicated and perhaps the best thing to do is to travel on the 125!!! We don't want to go on the 125 :( Has anyone sussed this fiasco out yet? I think we could go on the A22 on the way to Cvo and pay the fee in the post office but the big problem is getting back to the airport. Any help would be greatly appreciated :)

Look here for the latest information on this.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=20549
blue
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Re: Tolls!

Post by blue »

We've noticed the increased traffic on the N125 when we cross it at the Guia round about, at certain times of the day it can take ages so what on earth the traffic is going to be like when the season kicks in I hate to think. It'll be just like the good old days.
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